Google to pay $1B in France to settle fiscal fraud probe

Re:Google to pay $1B in France to settle fiscal fraud probe by namdnay on Friday September 13, 2019 @09:08AM (#20961726)

To nitpick your nitpick: that's only the case in America - everywhere else, Jail and Prison are synonyms

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Re:Google to pay $1B in France to settle fiscal fraud probe by ferrisford on Friday September 13, 2019 @09:12AM (#20961763)

Nah, he's wrong, even in America.

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Re:Google to pay $1B in France to settle fiscal fraud probe by Jedd on Friday September 13, 2019 @09:13AM (#20961779)

To go one level deeper, elsewhere it's gaol.

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Re:Google to pay $1B in France to settle fiscal fraud probe by mkl on Friday September 13, 2019 @10:20AM (#20962400)

I don't think that's true. Even for .uk, Google returns 55.5 million hits for "jail" and only 600 thousand for "gaol". For .au it's similar, and .nz is a little more even, but still "jail" wins by a lot.

From https://www.spectator.co.uk/2014/04/why-did-we-ever-spell-ja..., "The Guardian long persisted with gaol too but changed to jail in the 1980s, like the other English papers."

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Re:Google to pay $1B in France to settle fiscal fraud probe by Jedd on Friday September 13, 2019 @08:26PM (#20968034)

Undoubtedly common usage, especially in the pop media, has regrettably shifted towards the North American trends, as with so many words.

In Australia there's a move away from prison/jail/gaol and towards 'corrective/correctional/detention facility / centre' presumably to make the places sound more aligned with their political or social intent.

However each of the Australian state's active legislation still refers to them as gaols.

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