ain't, contraction, tickle (PLEASE), reordering, mass transit, underpass, subway

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  In a trailer on the edge of a film set beneath an underpass in downtown Cape Town, Ian McKellen, 69, is musing about fame and death, and what the papers will say when he goes. " 'GANDALF DIES,' I expect," he says. The thought tickles him. Not the dying part. The part about being a classical actor and having billions of fans, most of whom are 12. "When you spend as long as I have doing beautiful work which is only seen by a few thousand people, to be involved in popular entertainment without lessening one's standards ... that's fairly appealing," he says. "You become part of the culture." It's not that McKellen ever shied away from fame. On the contrary, he sought it out "to publicise myself to people who might employ me." You might say he overachieved. "Now it's ... well, it's gone well beyond that."
  

  
  

  New Ridership Record Shows U.S. Still Lured to Mass Transit
  

  Americans rode subways, buses and commuter railroads in record numbers in the third quarter of this year, even as gas prices dropped and unemployment rose. The 6.5 percent jump in transit ridership over the same period last year marks the largest quarterly increase in public transportation riders...
  (By Lena H. Sun, The Washington Post)
  
  
  mass transit noun [U]
  US FOR public transport
  public transport UK noun [U] (US public transportation)
  a system of vehicles such as buses and trains which operate at regular times on fixed routes and are used by the public:
  Greater investment in public transport would keep more cars off the roads.
  

  
  

  Sick transit and all that

  
  The Times reports that ridership on mass transit is surging thanks to high gasoline prices. Good.
  But … as of 2005, only 4.7 percent of American workers took mass transit to work. So even a 10% surge in mass transit ridership would take only around half a percent of drivers off the road.
  The point isn’t that nothing can be done — it’s just that serious reductions in driving would require a lot of long-term rearrangement of the way we live. It will come — but not quickly.
  long-term reordering of the way we live
  
  reorder
  
  v., -dered, -der·ing, -ders. v.tr.
  
  1. To order (the same goods) again.
  2. To straighten out or put in order again.
  3. To rearrange.
  v.intr.
  To order the same goods again.
  n.
  A further order of goods from the same supplier.
  underpass Show phonetics
  noun [C] (UK subway)
  a road or path that goes under something such as a busy road, allowing vehicles or people to go from one side to the other
  
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  tickle (PLEASE) Show phonetics
  verb [T often passive] INFORMAL
  If something tickles you, it amuses or pleases you:
  OLD-FASHIONED I was tickled pink (= very pleased) to hear the news.

Nonstandard.

1. Contraction of am not.
2. Used also as a contraction for are not, is not, has not, and have not.

USAGE NOTE Ain't has a long history of controversy. It first appeared in 1778, evolving from an earlier an't, which arose almost a century earlier as a contraction of are not and am not. In fact, ain't arose at the tail end of an era that saw the introduction of a number of our most common contractions, including don't and won't. But while don't and won't eventually became accepted at all levels of speech and writing, ain't was to receive a barrage of criticism in the 19th century for having no set sequence of words from which it can be contracted and for being a “vulgarism,” that is, a term used by the lower classes, although an't at least had been originally used by the upper classes as well. At the same time ain't's uses were multiplying to include has not, have not, and is not, by influence of forms like ha'n't and i'n't. It may be that these extended uses helped fuel the negative reaction. Whatever the case, criticism of ain't by usage commentators and teachers has not subsided, and the use of ain't is often regarded as a sign of ignorance. • But despite all the attempts to ban it, ain't continues to enjoy extensive use in speech. Even educated and upper-class speakers see no substitute in folksy expressions such as Say it ain't so and You ain't seen nothin' yet. • The stigmatization of ain't leaves us with no happy alternative for use in first-person questions. The widely used aren't I? though illogical, was found acceptable for use in speech by a majority of the Usage Panel in an earlier survey, but in writing there is no acceptable substitute for the stilted am I not?

"Housekeeping ain't no joke." — Louisa May Alcott
ain't


contraction
名
• 1. 収縮｛しゅうしゅく｝、短縮｛たんしゅく｝、縮小｛しゅくしょう｝
• 2. 《言語学》〔語の〕縮約（形）｛しゅくやく（けい）｝◆【略】cont. ; contr.
• 3. 《医》子宮収縮｛しきゅう しゅうしゅく｝、陣痛｛じんつう｝
  ・She is having contractions 2 to 3 minutes apart lasting 60 seconds. 彼女は陣痛が2〜3分おきに1分ある。
  ・Call your doctor if the contractions are 5 minutes apart and last 30 seconds. もし陣痛が5分間隔で30秒続くようなら医者に電話しなさい。
• 4. 〔病気｛びょうき｝などに〕かかること
• 5. 〔負債｛ふさい｝などが〕生じること