Timeline for ending a sentence with a preposition 'of'

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May 5, 2014 at 0:32	comment	added	Dan		Sadly, among pedants you sometimes have to avoid ending with a preposition because those pedants are, -- worse luck, -- your manager, parents-in-law, readers, customers, and so on. They're wrong, but often that remains your problem. In this case it's usually better to avoid the usually suggested circumlocution "of/in/at which/whom ...", which to the sane and hearty looks pedantic and tedious. For example, here you could instead say "... who enjoy a luxurious lifestyle which for many of us must remain a dream".
Feb 28, 2014 at 17:16	comment	added	John Lawler		There is no technical rule such as the one quoted. That is, "technically", you may say either one.
Feb 28, 2014 at 15:06	vote	accept	user67339
Feb 28, 2014 at 11:40	comment	added	Jon Hanna		Most people never did. It applies a Latin rule that isn't just irrelevant to English, but nonsensical (it exists in Latin precisely because Latin is otherwise much freer in word order, but "dream of which many us only can" isn't proper English just because the preposition is in the "right" place). Dryden took it as proof that he was a better writer than Johnson and Shakespeare, but it wasn't until the 18th C that the fetish for avoiding ending on prepositions just so you cold look down on others arrived. There is no point in history when all good writers followed this so-called "rule".
Feb 28, 2014 at 11:30	history	answered	Richiban	CC BY-SA 3.0