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Are poetic contractions, such as "e'er", "o'er" and "ne'er" (and other less common ones), English? As in officially recognized?

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If they are, then I've found the largest group of homophones ever! Air, are, e'er, ere, err, eyre, and heir! Hooray! Seven! – Daniel δ Jun 26 '11 at 11:31
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Are you saying that are sounds the same as air in your dialect? – Kosmonaut Jun 26 '11 at 12:01
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It does in almost every dialect. Are as in "a surface measure equal to 100 square meters". – Daniel δ Jun 26 '11 at 12:33
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Never heard of that before! – Kosmonaut Jun 26 '11 at 13:12
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Even those who've not hear "Are" befor may have heard "hectare"---that is 100 Are or the area of a square 100 meters on a side which is often used as a measure of agricultural land or the area of a political subdivision much like "acre" is used in the tradition system of English units. – dmckee Jun 26 '11 at 20:33

3 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

I'm not sure what it means to be "officially recognized" in English; there is no official list of English words.

If you mean appearing in dictionaries, then yes, it is a word.

(If you mean being employed in speech or everyday writing without sounding odd, then probably not. Its use is restricted to poetry, as you acknowledge.)

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So I can use it in my homophone list? – Daniel δ Jun 26 '11 at 12:36
@drm65: Well, why not? – Kosmonaut Jun 26 '11 at 13:12
I was afraid someone would say I was stretching English to get it. – Daniel δ Jun 26 '11 at 13:47
@drm65: I guess, then, it depends on your intended audience. – Kosmonaut Jun 26 '11 at 15:17
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You wouldn't get away with EER in Scrabble (not if you were playing me, anyway! :) – FumbleFingers Jun 28 '11 at 2:00
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up vote 2 down vote

Yes, they're real abbreviated English words, though I wouldn't use them unless I wanted to sound old-fashioned or poetic.

What do you mean officially recognised? English has no official arbitrator other than your dictionary of choice; so just check in your favourite dictionary!

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If we play our cards right, then in years to come EL&U will be recognised as the official arbitrator. And we'll all be such long-standing members we'll have the clout to just create and delete words at will! :) – FumbleFingers Jun 28 '11 at 2:03
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@Fumblefingers, and we can excommunicate (exlinguate?) purveyors of poor grammar. I think I'll start writing the list now... – TimLymington Jun 29 '11 at 22:10
@TimLymington: Do we dare start by exlinguating Kosmonaut, for suggesting in a comment that OP can consider e'er a valid word for a homophone list? No way am I going to play him at Scrabble without argument! :) – FumbleFingers Jun 30 '11 at 19:56
up vote 4 down vote

These contractions are primarily relegated to literary usage nowadays, and such usage is sparing in modern literature.

There is one phrase, however, which enjoys continued popularity in the spoken vernacular:

ne'er-do-well

Some might call it vestigial, but unlike the appendix, it still serves a useful purpose. No synonym carries the freight of implied prescience that this term bears.

"Wastrel" rolls deliciously on the tongue, and "good-for-nothing" judges those who are by present accounting utterly useless. But only "ne'er-do-well" pronounces "I have seen into your future, and there is no hope for you."

Scathing!

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