From: b.scott@csuohio.edu   
      
   On Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:32:04 +0200, Irina Rempt   
    wrote in   
    in   
   rec.arts.sf.misc:   
      
   > Helen Hall wrote:   
      
   >> The US poster who said she was going to cull her rats was   
   >> deeply affronted by the cries of outrage from the Brits.   
   >> But even when we'd worked out the difference in meaning,   
   >> she was totally unrepentent, basically saying that her   
   >> version of English trumped ours and we were stupid for   
   >> thinking that she'd kill any of her rats.   
      
   > What *did* she mean, then? I think I know only the UK   
   > meaning.   
      
   Her statement is ambiguous.  What the statement means to me   
   is that she was going to make a selection, keeping some and   
   getting rid of others; the basic meaning of the verb 'to   
   cull' is 'to select, to make a selection'.  In the case of a   
   bunch of animals, one way to do this is to kill off the ones   
   that you don't want, but it's hardly the only way to do it;   
   she could, for instance, have been planning to sell or give   
   them away.   
      
   In U.S. English the word retains its original sense, and the   
   specialized sense that you have in mind is just a very   
   commonly used special case.  The OED gives the same   
   impression, but that entry is now pretty old, and I see that   
   the current Concise Oxford has only the specialized meaning.   
   This is apparently a relatively recent change, say in the   
   last century or so, in British English.   
      
   Can you really not say 'We went through the slush pile and   
   culled out enough good stories for an anthology'?   
      
   Brian   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)