I saw this sign in a parking lot yesterday:
RESERVED FOR
EXPECTING MOTHERS
Are we doing that now, making expecting an adjective? Because it's not. I don't think. I've been wrong before.
In a Googlefight, "expecting mothers" get a respectable 35,400 while "expectant mothers" kills it with 253,000.
Is it that the phrase "she's expecting", with [a baby] understood, makes expecting seem like an adjective?
All I know is that when I see this sign, I expect to see mothers with their children, standing in the space, looking out to the horizon, as if a UFO is about to land.
4 comments:
I take it to mean "A Place in which to Expect Mothers." So I park there and wait for mom.
She has yet to show, but at least when she does, we'll be really close to the door.
Well, since parking meters don't seem to be in the act of parking, there's no real reason to expect expecting mothers to stand expectantly...
A little mischief and the sign would read "REVERSE FOR EXPECTING MOTHERS".
Off-topic, but thought you might like Waking Ambrose, an attempt to update the Devil's Dictionary.
coolkid: ha!
daryl: thanks for the tip: I've bookmarked it, and will visit! And, Welcome home!
Such a sign could be transformed with a little punctuation:
RESERVED FOR EXPECTING, MOTHERS!
or how about a small change in spelling:
RESEVERED FOR RESPECTING MOTHERS
or
RESERVED FOR INSPECTING MOTHERS
PRESERVED FOR PROSPECTIVE MOTHERS?
or I'd like to see:
RESERVED FOR UNEXPECTING MOTHERS
hah, fun?
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