Writing Tip 172: The Free Gift?
Have you ever had to pay for a gift? If so, the giver was kind of terrible and you were a bit too naïve.
Shouldn’t gifts be free? And if something is given for free, isn’t it pretty much a gift?More
Have you ever had to pay for a gift? If so, the giver was kind of terrible and you were a bit too naïve.
Shouldn’t gifts be free? And if something is given for free, isn’t it pretty much a gift?More
If you’re in a crowd and you’re trying to get across the room, would you “wind” your way around the other people or would you “wend” your way around them?
How confident are you in your answer?
And let me ask another question: Have you ever wondered why the past tense of “go” is “went”? No? Well, are you at least a little bit curious now that I pose the question?
Knowing the answer to one will help you with the answer to the other.
It all goes back to a word-hijacking centuries ago, when there were two major terms one could use to denote traveling from place to place. One could “go,” or one could “wend.” “Going” was more direct; “wending” was sometimes less so, but I’ll get back to that.
MoreQuick, think fast. Which of these three is the oldest form of the word?
Have your answer?
Are you sure?
I’ll be honest. I assumed the wrong answer for a long time, and this assumption lead me to dark, ungrammatical places. Not so scary, perhaps, but not a place any writer wants to be.
Okay, ready?More
He was Henry the eighth, he was. Henry the eighth, he was, he was.
Did you know that the origin of this tricky idiom goes back to a single member of English royalty? Henry VIII is the one for whom you can blame this phrase. Its first recorded use appears to be a 1539 proclamation of parliament. And yes, it was written “for all intents and purposes,” not “intensive purposes.” As you know, it means “for all practical reasons” or simply “in effect.”
If you were first introduced to this phrase in spoken English rather than written English, I can understand the confusion, but be sure not to sound silly if you use the expression yourself. For all intents and purposes, “intents and purposes” is the way to go.
Got it?