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Joined: Aug 2002
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Can.....Can not.....Can't
Do.......Do not.......Don't
Has.....Has not......Hasn'T
Could...Could not...Couldn't
Will.....Will not.....Won't???
Anyone know why? Willn't or wiln't
is....is not....isn't...all that difficult to say.
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Posts: 3,467
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 3,467 |
Comes from contractions of woll not or wonnot, both old forms of will not. Per OED.
TEd
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,891 |
Thanks TEd, I was waiting for someone to answer Zed on this one.
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Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154
Pooh-Bah
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OP
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 2,154 |
Woll
Interesting, thanks TEd
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Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
Dare ... dare not ... dasn't.
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 11
stranger
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stranger
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 11 |
We don't say dasn't in the UK, and only occasionally do we use daren't. I've always assumed that dasn't is a corruption of dares not, whether or not dares is the grammatically correct verb form.
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Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jul 2003
Posts: 3,230 |
>dasn't
I always thought the contraction for dares not was dursn't. Thanks for correctifying me, kind sir.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
"There was a place on my ankle that got to itching, but I dasn't scratch it; and then my ear begun to itch; and next my back, right between my shoulders." ~Mark Twain, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 2.
"Politics. You dasn't scare anybody for fear they will squawk." Robert A. Heinlein, Methuselah's Children, p 269 .
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Now *there's a good source for proper English grammar!
Nex thang you'll be citing Riddley Walker.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
I'm so confused. Here I foolishly thought that Mark Twain was being descriptive when the dolt should have known that usage in novels is prescriptive.
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