Questions tagged [eighteenth-century-english]
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10
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4
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3answers
109 views
Publick or Public? in the 18th and 19th Century Britain
The spelling of -ck was more popular than -c in many words in Britain. But in America, Noah Webster proposed around 1800 to replace -ck by -c, which caused the widespread of this -c spelling in US.
In ...
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1answer
2k views
Why wasn't it phony, overblown to close with “most obedient servant”?
I'm aware of this answer:
Today, "Your obedient servant" may sound extravagant and highly ornamental; but in the second half of the eighteenth century, when it first became popular, it must ...
4
votes
4answers
2k views
18th Century British-English - “Know not” vs “Don't know”
I'm trying to write some dialogue for a character who lives in 18th century England. I want the dialogue to sound as accurate as possible, but I'm not sure what the proper phrasing should be. I ...
1
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1answer
687 views
What's the difference between “conjoined” and “connected”?
In "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding", Hume says1:
All events seem entirely loose and separate. One event follows another; but we never can observe any tie between them. They seem ...
4
votes
2answers
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What is the meaning of this long line in this sentense?
I am reading "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen and encountered a strange dash in this sentence:
"The officers of the ---- shire were in general [...]"
---- is a long line and not four single dashes....
2
votes
2answers
370 views
Why was the subject and verb inverted in a declarative sentence?
Preface: I ask only about the syntax and not semantics; I comprehend the meaning behind the following quote (for a paraphrase in 20C English; see p 27 of 35), but I am inexperienced with Early Modern ...
1
vote
2answers
69 views
How to dissect/parse 'nave in so many places wilfully corrupted the scripture' ? (1786 UK)
Source: p 175, The Catholic Christian Instructed in the Sacraments ..., by Richard Challoner, 1786
But as for those that have vowed a chastity, they must make use of other means to prevent this ...
1
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1answer
161 views
Should this relative clause, headed by 'where', be joined to the main clause? (1786 UK)
Source: p 174, The Catholic Christian Instructed in the Sacraments ..., by Richard Challoner, 1786
Q. But does not Christ say, concerning continency, St. Matt. xix. 11,
'All men cannot receive this ...
1
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1answer
52 views
Grammaticality: 'gift … will not be denied him' (1786 UK)
Source: p 174, The Catholic Christian Instructed in the Sacraments ..., by Richard Challoner, 1786
A. Continency is not required of all, but such as
have by vow engaged to keep it: and ...
57
votes
6answers
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What were the rules for capitalising nouns in the 17th and 18th centuries?
It seems to have been common practice in the 17th and 18th centuries in English-language sources to capitalise the first letters of nouns, as in
At which Time he prov'd himself the Noah's Dove, that ...
