🚀 go-pugleaf

koala@sydney.DIALix.oz.au (John Savage) writes:

>peter@fourier.newcastle.edu.au (Peter Moylan) writes:
>>A couple of weeks ago I used the expression "can't see the wood
>>for the trees" in a posting to comp.lang.modula2.  Somebody asked
>>me if I was Dutch; apparently this expression is common in Dutch

>By this enquiry, your questioner, Somebody, has also underscored
>an observation that use of this phrase betrays its speaker's non-
>native [Australian] background.

>This concept "wood" is satisfied by "forest" in Australian-English,
>and I'd venture to say that examples of use of the word "wood" to
>mean "forest" are non-existent in the local lingo (with one notable
>exception: it's retained in an evergreen nursery song).

>--
>John "teddy-bear" Savage               koala@sydney.dialix.com.au
----------------------------------------
As long as Shakespeare is read and performed, the word "wood" in the 
sense of "forest" will survive at least as part of our passive 
vocabulary. I ran across it in "Macbeth" last night.
 
                                        -- Aron