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Thom Price
Byrne Robotics Member
L’Homme Diabolique
Joined: 29 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7593
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| Posted: 23 May 2007 at 3:44pm | IP Logged | 1
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But a "couple" is two. Why would anyone think it is more than two?
***
Words are often stretched in popular or common usage beyond their literal, strict meanings. If handed a bag of candy and advised to "take a couple," how many people would take precisely two?
Even the dictionary recognizes the expanded usage of the word:
cou·ple NOUN: Two items of the same kind; a pair.
- Something that joins or connects two things together; a link.
- (used with a sing. or pl. verb)
- Two people united, as by betrothal or marriage.
- Two people together.
- Informal A few; several: a couple of days.
Edited by Thom Price on 23 May 2007 at 3:49pm
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Bill Dowling
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 07 July 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 2176
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| Posted: 23 May 2007 at 3:48pm | IP Logged | 2
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Where I grew up, we used "a couple of", or more phonetically "a couple-a", to mean somewhere in the neighborhood of 2-5. It was never understood to mean any precise number. We used it for things we didn't know the number of "I'm going to buy a couple of comics" meant you were going to get some comics, not too many, but not specifically two.
It wasn't until I moved to Virginia that I encountered people who meant specifically 2 when they said it. It never even occured to me growing up that "couple" was the same sense of the word as when you talk about a married couple. (and no, I didn't grow up in Utah)
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Dave Pruitt
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 6150
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| Posted: 23 May 2007 at 3:51pm | IP Logged | 3
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I asked for a couple coffees in the drive thru today, and they only gave me one cuppa coffee. What's the world coming to?
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Randy Sterger
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 04 January 2007
Posts: 223
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| Posted: 23 May 2007 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | 4
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I was with my girlfriend this last week and someone said "you two make a cute couple" and I said "thanks, there's two of us!" lol
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Michael Everall
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 31 March 2007
Location: United States
Posts: 640
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| Posted: 23 May 2007 at 4:38pm | IP Logged | 5
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Its not easy being in the service industry.
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Understatement of the year. It's the equivalent of having hundreds of bosses
each day. Glad I'm not as much a part of that industry as I once was.
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Gene Best
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 24 October 2005
Location: United States
Posts: 4598
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| Posted: 23 May 2007 at 4:43pm | IP Logged | 6
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The English language is, in general, troublesome. Contradictions between "authorities" and reference works abound. It's a fun language ... but messy.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132401
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| Posted: 23 May 2007 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | 7
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Granted "a couple" has come to mean a fairly undefined number, in colloquial usage. However, if someone asked you for "a couple" of something, and you could only find two…
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Brian Czako
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 143
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| Posted: 23 May 2007 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | 8
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I remember the following from when I was a wee lad: "Two's a couple, three's a crowd, but what are four and five?"
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Wallace Sellars
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 17673
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| Posted: 23 May 2007 at 5:30pm | IP Logged | 9
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When I was very young, I was taught that several meant seven or more.
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Michael Connell
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 13 January 2006
Posts: 4026
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| Posted: 23 May 2007 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | 10
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A quartet & a quintet
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Brian Hague
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 November 2006
Posts: 8515
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| Posted: 23 May 2007 at 5:45pm | IP Logged | 11
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Brian Czako wrote: "I remember the following from when I was a wee lad: "Two's a couple, three's a crowd, but what are four and five?"
Nine.
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Brian Czako
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 16 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 143
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| Posted: 23 May 2007 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | 12
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Ding ding ding!!!!
We have a winnah!
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Topic Closed)
