Amidst some emails, Professor Anne Curzan recently came across a question from a colleague about "amongst" and "whilst." The colleague wanted to know: "Why did American idiom preserve 'amongst' but drop whilst?" Fair question, though we're not so sure that American idiom has preserved "amongst." In Modern American Usage , lexicographer Bryan Garner addresses "whilst," "amongst," and "amidst." He calls all of them archaisms and goes on to say that "'whilst' reeks of pretension" and "'amongst,' in