It's called a full stop, damnit. A period is the time between events of a recurring phenomenon. Where did "period" come from to describe a full stop? They're all out to confuse me.
Because the word period has many meanings one of which is "termination" ("death put a period to his endeavors"; "a change soon put a period to my tranquility"*) so it's being substituted in for "full stop."
I have to admit, I have never heard any of those uses for period in England or Ireland, ever. Ok, I'm not the most widely-read person on the planet, though I'm pretty deeply-read (Y'know, like I read lots and lots and lots, but it's all fantasy :) ) so it's possible it's just me. But I think it's equally possible it's just an American-ism. Now this doesn't stop it being an archaic form formally used in England, as an awful lot of American-English oddities we laugh at are simply common 17th century forms of English, or just ones that evolved differently from the same root as their British-English counterparts.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
I have to admit, I have never heard any of those uses for period in England or Ireland, ever. Ok, I'm not the most widely-read person on the planet, though I'm pretty deeply-read (Y'know, like I read lots and lots and lots, but it's all fantasy :) ) so it's possible it's just me. But I think it's equally possible it's just an American-ism. Now this doesn't stop it being an archaic form formally used in England, as an awful lot of American-English oddities we laugh at are simply common 17th century forms of English, or just ones that evolved differently from the same root as their British-English counterparts.