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Re: "hewed to"

From:Elyse M. Grasso <emgrasso@...>
Date:Thursday, March 17, 2005, 19:38
On Thursday 17 March 2005 01:09 pm, Roger Mills wrote:
> Sally Caves 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 . . . > (snip) > > >> But "hewed to"? Anybody else seen the development of > > >> "hew" along the lines of "cleave"? > > >> > Oddly enough, it sounds vaguely OK....???? though I don't think I've ever > encountered it. Maybe the writer had a vague memory of "cleave" but couldn't > come up with the word. ======================================== > > > From: "Bryan Parry" <bajparry@...> > > > > > 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. > > > > You've never heard "he cleaves to the opinion that..."? or "The chiton > > cleaves to the rock tenaciously?" It's only ever used with the > > preposition > > for this meaning. > > > Well, I'd recognize those if I saw them in print, but I do feel it's a very > archaic usage. If someone actually said it, you could, as the saying goes, > knock me over with a feather. My only contact with the word is in the old > Marriage ceremony (old Book of Common Prayer), where "a man shall leave his > parents and cleave to his wife..." which may be lifted from the Bible. > > > Joe wrote: > > > > > It's an unusual form, too. Wouldn't it be more normal to say 'hewn'? > > > > About as normal as it would be to say "he's cloven to the opinion that..." > > :) > True; that seems to have become strictly the adjectival form and only means > 'split', as in "cloven hooves" also archaic to me, with religious/Biblical > overtones-- a feature of pigs and other non-Kosher animals (IIRC) and.... > Satan. > > Hmm, there's also "cleft". >
"To hew to a/the line" is a formula I have seen before. (In various conjugations). It is a bit archaic (feels a bit 19th century). I think it has fallen from use because the underlying metaphor (derived from woodcutting/carpentry?) has passed out of common experience. Google produces 18 hits for "hew to a line" and the first two are woodworking-related. (The first one is for a specially bevelled hatchet that lets you hew to a line better.) I didn't try googling the other conjugations, but hewed is the correct past tense, while hewn to line would be the past participle. -- Elyse Grasso The World of Cherani Station www.data-raptors.com/cherani/index.html Cherani Tradespeech www.data-raptors.com/cherani/tradespeech.html