Archaic or obsolete vocabulary and grammar.
8
votes
3answers
3k views
What happened to the “‑est” and “‑eth” verb suffixes in English?
What happened to them, and how were they once used? Straining my mind to sound archaic, I came up with the following:
Dost thou thinkest thou can escape thy sins?
and
Bringeth me my armor ...
46
votes
6answers
2k views
Why does legal English continue to remain archaic?
Perhaps this is a question for Law.SE if one exists, but I am asking here as there are other nice questions on English history.
There is some historical development account presented in Wikipedia, ...
6
votes
5answers
6k views
Is “from whence” correct? Or should it be “whence”?
I just saw a parody on the Lord of the Rings, where one of the characters says:
it must be cast back in the fire from whence it came!
This struck me as odd, since I expected them to say "whence ...
23
votes
7answers
2k views
Does “gay” still include the meaning “merry”?
Dictionary.com lists eight meanings
of gay, with “merry, lively” as
the first entry.
Microsoft banned an
Xbox user for listing Fort
Gay (a real place) as his
hometown:
Xbox Live considered the ...
8
votes
2answers
4k views
Is the proper spelling “judgment” or “judgement”?
I always thought the proper spelling was judgment, but I see judgement all the time, even in articles, news, etc. Merriam-Webster lists judgement as a variant spelling for judgment.
But is the ...
2
votes
2answers
278 views
Reason for Subject-Verb Inversion: Only in cases where A is B, shall the Company do X [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Sentences using: [something] + have + they
subject-auxiliary inversions not associated with questions
In the following, why does subject-verb inversion occur? Is it ...
10
votes
4answers
374 views
What exactly is “noonday night”?
In answering the question Is there a term for “midnight” that is like “noon”, I came across the phrase noonday night listed as a synonym for midnight in my copy of Roget's International ...
4
votes
1answer
211 views
Outmoded word for “next Tuesday”
I am writing an email and wanted to refer to this coming Tuesday. The phrase "Tuesday est" popped into my mind (something Miss Marple might have said) but when I googled it I could find no reference. ...
0
votes
2answers
215 views
“Two films don't a revolution make”: is this sentence grammatically correct? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Why is “xxxx doth not a yyyy make” considered valid English?
Proper usage/origin of the generic phrase “[action phrase] does not a [noun] make”
“Dazzling ...
