From: "Peter Cudmore" <[log in to unmask]>
> Cf. Fowler's Modern English Usage (1926)
Burchfield's 1998 revision of Fowler (Third Edition, Revised) is more
expansive:
toward, towards. 1 As prepositions, toward is the more usual form in AmE,
and towards the almost invariable form in BrE. But the distribution of the
variants is subject to much variation. Routine examples: (UK) Madeleine
... led her guests towards Edmond - P. P. Read, 1986: Miles Harrier was
making his way ... towards their rendezvous - M. Bracewell, 1989. (US) 'I'd
hate to see you be so unforgiving toward me,' she said - New Yorker, 1989.
There is a new policy toward risk that is at least as important to American
society as tort - Daedalus 1980.
The OED has "while" and "whilst" (conj) as synonyms, as does Burchfield,
though he states that the "whilst" form isn't used in AmE.
Robin
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