Talk:Parts of Lincolnshire

Singular or Plural

The current text states:

The three Parts were: [...] Each Parts had [...]

This suggests a word whose singular is "Parts" and plural is "Parts". I don't think that is correct. There seems some confusion in the terminology here. Let me use superscripts 1 and 2 to distinguish the two senses:

Lincolnshire is divided into three Parts¹
each Part¹ is itself a collectivity of vague Parts²;

So "the Parts² of Kesteven" form one of the Parts¹ of Lincolnshire

For analogy, there is a country called "the United States of America", but one would not say this country was a "States".

In the Oxford English Dictionary, "part (noun 1)" has 18 subsenses; Part¹ is sense 3a, and Part² is sense 18a:

3. a. A piece or section of something which together with another or others makes up the whole (whether actually separate from the rest or not); an amount, but not all, of a thing or a number of things (material or immaterial); any of the smaller things into which a thing is or may be divided (in reality or notionally); a portion, segment, constituent, fraction. Freq. with plural concord when denoting a number of people or things.

18. a. A portion of a country or territory, or of the world; a country, region, or area. Freq. in pl.(often with collective rather than plural sense). In constructions such as parts of the world, the sense is simply 3a. In quot. 1833 spec. (in pl. and usu. with capital initial): each of the three administrative districts (Holland, Kesteven, and Lindsey) into which the county of Lincolnshire in eastern England was formerly divided.

c1400 Prose Versions New Test.: Matt. (Selwyn) ii. 23 Ioseph was amonestyd..how he schulde go in-to þe partys (þat is, to þe cuntrey) of Galyle. 1423 Petition in Fenland N. & Q. (1907-9) 7 307 The most parte of this londe is charged with the grete habondance of water that has falne in the said partes. 1529 in J. D. Marwick Extracts Rec. Burgh Edinb. (1871) II. 10 Personis duelland in ony pairtis beyond the said waltir of Fortht. 1558 J. KNOX First Blast (Arb.) 20 Women in those partes, were not tamed nor embased by consideration of their own sex and kind. 1584 A. BARLOWE in R. Hakluyt Princ. Navigations (1589) III. 730 There came downe from all parts great store of people, bringing with them leather. 1607 T. MIDDLETON Michaelmas Terme III. sig. F2v, I am a meere stranger for these partes. a1674 LD. CLARENDON Surv. Leviathan (1676) 2 One who ha's spent many years in foreign parts. 1725 G. BERKELEY Proposal in Wks. (1871) III. 215 To propagate the Gospel in foreign parts. 1793 R. BURNS Grose's Peregr. iii, It's ten to ane ye'll find him snug in Some eldritch part. 1833 Rep. Sel. Comm. Munic. Corporat. 334 The mixed jurisdiction in the Parts of Kesteven. 1875 W. ALEXANDER My Ain Folk ix, He's been an eefu' man i' the pairt. 1879 National Police Gaz. 4 Jan. 2/4 He obtained the money, pocketed it and struck out for parts unknown. 1956 S. BECKETT Waiting for Godot I. 36 You are not from these parts, you don't yet know what our twilights can do. 1986 B. FUSSELL I hear Amer. Cooking VI. Introd. 423 The man I was looking for was a squarehead, as they call Swedes in this part. 2001 Times 14 Sept. II. 7/1 Apparently they are all heavily into husband-swapping in these parts.

"the three Parts of Lincolnshire" on Google books gives a fair few matches.

I've added subscripts in the following extract from Parliamentary Papers: Militia Bill 1854 which uses Part¹ in the singular and plural. Parts² is never found in the singular.

Three Parts¹ of County of Lincoln, how to be dealt with under this Act.

XXI. And whereas it is necessary to determine , by Law the Proportions in which the several Divisions of the County Lincoln known as the Parts² of Kesteven, Holland, and Lindsey respectively should contribute to the Expenditure incurred or to be incurred by the said County in respect to a Place for Militia Stores under this or the recited Acts: Be it therefore enacted, That of the Sums which have been subsequently to the passing of the said Act of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Victoria, Chapter Fifty, or which may be hereafter expended from Time to Time for the Purposes aforesaid in respect to the whole Number of Militia raised or to be raised in and for the said County, the Proportions chargeable on the said Parts¹ respectively shall be as follows, namely, on Lindsey One Moiety of the whole Sum or Sums, and on Kesteven Four Sevenths, and on Holland Three Sevenths of the remaining Moiety thereof.

How the several Quotas shall be paid

XXII. And whereas a separate and distinct County Rate is now raised, and a separate Commission of the Peace exists in and for each of the said Three Parts¹ or Divisions: Be it enacted, That the Proportion, of the whole Charge hereby made payable by each such Part¹ shall be separately raised in and for each Part¹, and shall be paid and accounted for by the respective Treasurer of each Part¹, and may be borrowed and secured upon Mortgage of the Rate leviable in each Part¹ respectively, and under the Authority and Control of the Justices acting in and for each Part¹, and at the General or Quarter Sessions 30 held in and for the same respectively, in like Manner for the Purposes now specified as if each of the said Parts¹ were a distinct and separate County.

Parts¹ of Lincolnshire to be separate Counties, with reference to Contributions from Boroughs and Franchises.

XXIII. Each of the said Parts¹ of the County of Lincoln shall also be deemed to be a separate County for the Purpose of determining the Proportion in which the several Boroughs and other Places not liable to County Rates situated therein respectively shall contribute to the Expenses incurred or to be incurred as aforesaid under this or the recited Acts, the said several Boroughs and Places being deemed liable to contribute in aid of the several Parts¹ in which they are locally situated respectively; and for the Purposes of this Act the City of Lincoln shall be held to be in the Parts² of Lindsey, and the Borough of Stamford in the Parts² of Kesteven.

jnestorius^(talk) 21:38, 9 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Well, that's all very learned.

All I know is that before the abolition when I drove up the A1 I would pass a sign saying I had entered the 'Parts of Kesteven', and that letters to my Father from the local authority were headed in the same style.

Don't forget that as late as the 1980s some people in Kesteven were still using the -en plural for shoes, houses, and (as I once heard) busses! I'm not sure the 's in Parts denoted a plural. --Robert EA Harvey (talk) 04:28, 29 April 2013 (UTC)[reply]