Re: CHAT smite (was: Performative verbs)

Ray Brown said:
> On Tuesday, August 31, 2004, at 07:37 , Mark P. Line wrote:
>
>> John Cowan said:
>>>
>>> ObTrivia:  The rarest English irregular verb is believed to be "smite",
>>> preterite and past participle "smote", one in a million words.
>>
>>
>> I wonder how frequent it is in the King James Bible.
>
> Dunno.
>
> But this side of the Pond, "smote" is only the preterite; the past
> participle here is "smitten" and is not particularly rare. But it has to
> be admitted that modern usage of "smitten" is often metaphorical -
> typically describing a young man who has been smitten by the charms of
> some young lady  ;)
Yep. A sentence like "Wow, look, that young lady's charms just smote that
young man!" would have a different meaning altogether.


-- Mark

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