Another one rides the omnibus.

Quote: Wizard

It is my understanding that the word for bus in Spanish is omnibus, but whenever I use that word in a Spanish-speaking country people look at me like they don't have a clue what I'm saying.

Definition of OMNIBUS : a usually automotive public vehicle designed to carry a large number of passengers.

Since it is in the English dictionary as well, you can use the word in an English-speaking country and people will look at you like they don't have a clue what you are saying,


The word is plural in the dative case in Latin, and literally means "for all" or "to all". So it is presently used most often in published books consisting of collected works about a subject.in the 1830's it must have referred to a horse drawn carriage for anyone to get on and off.

Quote: Pacomartin

Since it is in the English dictionary as well, you can use the word in an English-speaking country and people will look at you like they don't have a clue what you are saying,

Yes!!

Besides, any Mexican will tell you "bus" is short for "autobús." And they're much more likely to say "camión" anyway.

Point is you can't take it as given that a word is used currently just because it's in the dictionary.

Quote:

So it is presently used most often in published books consisting of collected works about a subject.

Even that's falling into disuse. "Collection" or "works" is more en-vogue now, if it's mentioned at all. I've lots of books with collected stories either by subject or author, and none are called "Omnibus." For example, Asimov's (nearly) complete collection of robot stories and novellas is called "The Complete Robot." Essay and story collections by Larry niven carry diverse titles, such as "Scatterbrain."

Quote: Nareed

Have you tried RTFM? It works nearly every time ;)

I have no patience for owner manuals.

Quote:

Are you becoming Sheldon Cooper on purpose or by accident? ;)

Accident.

Quote: Paco

Definition of OMNIBUS : a usually automotive public vehicle designed to carry a large number of passengers.

Then why is the House often putting the word Omnibus in budget bills? example.

Quote: Wizard

I have no patience for owner manuals.

They were delivered with the car. There's no need to wait for them.

Quote:

Accident.

Ok, then you can still stop or change course.

Try looking up an SNL sketch with Alec Baldwin (harder than it sounds, as he's hosted tons of times) where he plays a French teacher. At the end he goes all Sheldon Cooper on some Frenchmen. Don't be that guy.

Quote: Wizard

Then why is the House often putting the word Omnibus in budget bills? example.

That seems to have started in the 1980s. As a guess I would say that an "omnibus" has a large capacity and the bills that use that term tend to be large, encompassing bills. "COBRA" which today deals with health insurance was part of a budget bill the rest of which is long since forgotten. Probably sounded good the first time they used it so they still use it.

"Omnibus" acts in Congress are just a way to get enough pork and favors out to everyone needed to vote for them.

Quote: Wizard

Then why is the House often putting the word Omnibus in budget bills? example.

Examples of noun suffixes in English

Noun Suffix	Meaning	Example
-acy	state or quality	privacy
-al	act or process of	refusal
-ance, -ence	state or quality of	maintenance, eminence
-dom	place or state of being	freedom, kingdom
-er, -or	one who	trainer, protector
-ism	doctrine, belief	communism
-ist	one who	chemist
-ity, -ty	quality of	veracity
-ment	condition of	argument
-ness	state of being	heaviness
-ship	position held	fellowship
-sion, -tion	state of being	concession, transition

omni- suffix that means "all"
omnibus (n.)
omnipresence (n.)
omniscience (n.)
omnifarious (adj.)
omnipotent (adj.)
omnivorous (adj.)


The suffix -bus existed in Latin for something called a dative case. English lost the "dative case" a thousand years ago, and Spanish did not retain it from Latin. But the concept was that it was for nouns to which something was given. You would use it in sentences like "Mike gave the girl a drink" where the noun 'girl' had a special suffix in Latin to indicate that she was receiving something. If the dative case is retained at all in English it is often with the prepositions 'for' or 'to'.

Example "We learn for life, not for school". "He seems fine, to me".

So the word "omnibus" was just a prefix "omni-" which meant "all" and a suffix "-bus" which meant 'to' or 'for'. For some reason the word was used to describe a public carriage in the early 19th century with seats "for all". But the word could mean lots of other things.

The word 'omnibus' was used In reference to legislation, as early as 1842.

Unless you knew Latin, you would not recognize -bus as a suffix, because there is no trace of the suffix in Modern English. The word "omnibus" must have sounded dumb to English speakers because they were abbreviating it as "bus" as far back as 1832.

Quote: Pacomartin

The word "omnibus" must have sounded dumb to English speakers because they were abbreviating it as "bus" as far back as 1832.

Thanks. Outstanding Paco answer, as usual.

Hopefully it didn't sound too dumb in Spanish when I was at the Santo Domingo airport looking for the omnibus to downtown.

Quiero montar el omnibus para compar algunos perros calientes.

Quote: Wizard

Hopefully it didn't sound too dumb in Spanish when I was at the Santo Domingo airport looking for the omnibus to downtown.

Did you ask for a "perro caliente para llevar"?


At least one of the companies in Mexico has retained the word in it's company name/

It's interesting what makes up a name for a word. The highest order concept was not the wheels, the locomotion, but the fact that there were {seats} "for anyone" who could pay the fare.




Latin 5 cases

Quote: Wizard

Hopefully it didn't sound too dumb in Spanish when I was at the Santo Domingo airport looking for the omnibus to downtown.

Why do you insist on using words and expressions that are not used, sometimes not even understood?

Quote: Nareed

Why do you insist on using words and expressions that are not used, sometimes not even understood?

How was I supposed to now at the time it wasn't a commonly used word? It IS in the dictionary and I'm quite sure it is in one of the books I'm reading that was translated into Spanish. Otherwise, where would I have even picked up the word?

This is the trouble with learning a language when there isn't anyone to practice with.