Re: CHAT: Must Needs? (WAS: Lighting Some Flames: Towards conlang artistry)
| From: | David Peterson <digitalscream@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, March 18, 2002, 6:24 |
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It's certainly a (literary only) archaism to older American ears like mine;
quite likely utterly unknown to many of the Younger Generation (Mr. E. Lash
excluded!) 8-)))>> Wrote Roger...
??? I'm young. All young Americans seem to know this. We all are forced to
study a Shakespeare play a year. The phrase is the subject of fun, and
because of that, hardly not unheard of. However, it's never used seriously,
and probably understood to mean "an old way to say 'must'"--that's the way I
understood it, until now. How does "needs" mean "absolutely"? Any idea as
to the history?
-David
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