Why is del(ete) a statement instead of a method?

[Aahz]

In article <3DA38FD1.DF32DCCC at alcyone.com>,
Erik Max Francis  <max at alcyone.com> wrote:
>
>It's because del is used for a lot more than just removing elements from
>lists.  It also removes keys from dictionaries, and can unbind
>variables:
>
>>>> x = 1
>>>> del x
>>>> x
>Traceback (most recent call last):
>  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
>NameError: name 'x' is not defined

You get a different error in a function:

def f():
    x = 1
    del x
    print x

f()
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