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As a 40 year old who has always lived in the US, the use of -cum- in this manner was never widely used in speech during my lifetime, but it did used to be prett
by georgemcbay 13y ago
As a 40 year old who has always lived in the US, the use of -cum- in this manner was never widely used in speech during my lifetime, but it did used to be pretty common in writing.
Not so much anymore, though.
- mindcrime 13y agoAs another 40 year old who has always lived in the US, that exactly jibes with my experience as well. As far as I can tell, the expression is common in written English, but almost unheard of in spoken English. Now that I'm thinking about it, I'm trying to think of other examples of "things that are sometimes (or often) written, but almost never spoken".
- Intermernet 13y agoThe word "Regards".
- thaumasiotes 13y agoAs a 27-year-old from the US, I tend to agree that this is used in writing (where it's distinguished by being set in italics) and never in speech. I do have a photo of a fancy trash receptacle (four different sections!) in Hong Kong bearing the label "LITTER CUM RECYCLABLES COLLECTION BIN".