Posted by Jeremy Kriewaldt on April 06, 2006 at 00:12:38 from 202.138.212.58 user JeremyKriewaldt.
In Reply to: Re: SW: Sentry(-)go posted by Peter H on April 05, 2006 at 16:54:54:
I don't think the problem is the hyphenated form that Titty used (see Ed's reply below) but the unhyphenated form used by Roger:
"Bridget on sentry go," said Roger.
It is possible that it is just a proof-reading error (and to regard it as such conforms with my usual attitude that when the facts are equally consistent with a stuff-up and a conspiracy, it is almost always a stuff-up). However, to regard it in that light means that Roger is speaking pidgin, whereas even he tends to speak recognisably "good" English. In addition, that reading just doesn't seem to me to make sense in the context of the passage as a whole.
As a verb form, it does make sense to me - Roger is commanding Bridget to go on sentry duty. But the verb form is not in the Shorter OED or any other dictionary that I have looked in, although the etymology in the Shorter OED seems to suggest that the noun is a "back formation" from the verb form.