Can you say
and so, he was deserved of his sorry fate ?
Would you pronounce deserved as deserve-ed, as is commonly done in poetic language?
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3You could reasonably do it if you were writing poetry, or some text that adopted an archaic tone. It's not perfectly "legal" modern English syntax, though.– Hot LicksOct 27, 2014 at 16:08
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for myself, I read it as "deserve-ed" when I read the question. I don't read poetry but maybe I should.– DoubleDoubleOct 27, 2014 at 21:26
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2 Answers
No, you can say only 'He deserved his sorry fate'. 'Deserved' has two syllables. There are no citations for 'deserved of' in the Corpus of Contemporary American English and only two in the British National Corpus.
You could say "He was deserving of his sorry fate". There are 72 citations for 'deserving of' in the BC and 570 in the COCA.
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Please support your answer with sources. That makes your answer stronger, and more likely to be viewed as correct. Otherwise it's only opinion. The site tour and the help center will give you guidance on how to use this site. Oct 27, 2014 at 13:41
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I might spell it "deservéd" to indicate the pronunciation.
Because a friend who does forget things
Is deservéd not of mirth.
Jonathan White, "Six Months"
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1I think you're supposed to use a grave accent (as in, "deservèd") when you do this. Oct 28, 2014 at 17:49