Re: "hewed to"
| From: | Ray Brown <ray.brown@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Friday, March 18, 2005, 6:04 |
|---|
On Thursday, March 17, 2005, at 06:33 , Benct Philip Jonsson wrote:
> Sally Caves skrev:
>> 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"?
Nope - never! And until you explained what what mr Purdom meant, I didn't
understand what he was saying.
>> Sally
>
> I think they are totally mistaken.
I agree.
> Swedish has two
> distinct words _klyva_ "cleave, cut along the length"
> and _kliva_ "take a stride". The rest is easy to figure.
The two 'cleaves' are not the same in English, either.
The one meaning 'to divide, separate, split with violence' ((<-- O.E.
_cléofan_) is _transitive_ and is a either a _strong_ or 'mixed' verb:
preterite _clove_ (archaic: _clave_) or _cleft_; past part. _cloven_ or
_cleft_.
The other one, 'to stick, adhere' is _intransitive_ and _weak_: cleave,
cleaved, cleaved (<-- O.E. _clifan_).
The verb 'hew' (to cut with blows <-- O.E. héawan) is _transitive_ (so
'hewed to' is weird) and is essentially a weak verb, both preterite & past
participle being _hewed_ , tho the participle does have an alternative
strong form _hewn_. But either 'has hewed' or 'has hewn' are normally
acceptable to prescriptivists :)
Mr Purdum's usage seems to me to be on a par with a south Walian
councillor I once heard on the radio talking about a "resumé of work" when
he meant a _resumption of work_ - trying to use a fancy phrase and
choosing the wrong word!
Ray
===============================================
http://home.freeuk.com/ray.brown
ray.brown@freeuk.com
===============================================
Anything is possible in the fabulous Celtic twilight,
which is not so much a twilight of the gods
as of the reason." [JRRT, "English and Welsh" ]
Replies