Re: word usage (was Re: aw_world_object_password SDK call?) (General Discussion)
Re: word usage (was Re: aw_world_object_password SDK call?) // General Discussion
Aug 11, 2002, 2:43am
I'm guessing this entire conversation came out of boredom ;P
[View Quote]"kit" <dominicl at clear.net.nz> wrote in message
news:3D558933.5175D28E at clear.net.nz...
>
>
> eep wrote:
>
"Worst" is more extreme than "worse"; and there is no "worser" or "worsest"
>
> This double comparative has a long literary history beginning in the late
15c.: e.g. Chang'd to a worser shape thou canst not be-Shakespeare,
> 1591; I find she is A diuell, worser then the worst in hell-J. Ford, 1633;
For I, e'en I, the bondsman of a worser man was made-W. Morris, 1887;
> Some gals is better, some wusser than some-E. Pound, 1959; The people oh
Lord Are sinful and sad Prenatally biassed Grow worser born bad-Stevie
> Smith, 1975.
>
> The Oxford English Dictionary's verdict (1928) on the status of the word
is still about right: 'The word was common in the 16th and 17th c. as a
> variant of 'worse', in all its applications. In modern use, it is partly a
literary survival (especially in phrases like the worser part, sort,
> half), partly dial. and vulgar.' Its vulgar use is illustrated by the
following examples: Your poor dear wife as you uses worser nor a
dog-Dickens,
> 1835; That's my new word. Yeah, it's gonna be worser. You know, worse to
worser-Interview (US), 1990.
>
> Cheers,
> Kit
> Can we be any more pedant?
>
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