Re: "hewed to"

To be honest with you,  I have never heard "cleave"
used to mean anything other than to pierce/split etc.
Altho' I checked the dictionary, and it appears that
you are not mistaken. All I can say is that must be an
obscure usage of the word cleave, because I have never
before come across it. My dictionary does seem to
suggest that they come from two different, albeit
related, words.

Bryan



--- Sally Caves <scaves@...> wrote:
> Yet another English *usage* thread, but I found this
> curious:
>
> Mr. Wolfowitz's career has hewed to those same
> unshrinking precepts, and in nominating him for the
> presidency . . .
>
> This was from my on-line New York Times by Todd S.
> Purdum.  It seems to me the writer meant "cleaved,"
> a word I've always found curious, because it means
> both "split apart" and "stick to."  It contains its
> own antonym.  Now, it seems, "hew" has acquired an
> antonym as well.  At least for Purdum.
>
> Hew: to cut down, to split or cut in half.
>
> But "hewed to"? Anybody else seen the development of
> "hew" along the lines of "cleave"?
>
> Sally
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.

	-- William Butler Yeats

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