More thefts on the river

[pvb]

My understanding has always been that windows have sills, and tidal basins have cills. Maybe wrong though.

Correct.

 

[johnalison]

Correct.

It is correct insofar as it is not wrong, but that doesn't mean that 'sill' isn't also correct. Just because some people have adopted the later spelling doesn't make it universal. If I choose to name my boat 'Bludhownd' this doesn't invalidate the conventional spelling. I reject the idea that those who have adopted a minority spelling have a right to impose it on others.

 

[Aquaboy]

And to clear something else up, a siphon outlet doesn't have to be below the level of the tank. It just has to be below the inlet level of the siphon........which has to be completely below the surface of the fluid you are siphoning !

 

[Keith 66]

All fascinating but did the perps get caught?

 

[pvb]

It is correct insofar as it is not wrong, but that doesn't mean that 'sill' isn't also correct. Just because some people have adopted the later spelling doesn't make it universal.

No, but in my earlier post I did say that "cill" is the more usual spelling of "sill" when used in the context of an underwater horizontal member. So, not universal, but certainly more usual. Of course, lots of people use the wrong spelling for lots of words, it's what makes our language so fascinating.

 

[pvb]

All fascinating but did the perps get caught?

Doubt it.

 

[Bru]

For reasons unknown and lost, probably for good, in the mists of antiquity, "cill" was the normal spelling throughout the inland canal system for the ledge into which the top gates of a lock fit

To the best of my knowledge, the word had always previously been spelt "sill", "syll" or "sylle" etc. Always an "s", never a "c"

But cill it was and still is on the canals and that spelling migrated to other similar structures in the nautical world such as docks and ultimately marinas

 

[Malish]

new thread time?