This little phrase struck me as odd today, for some reason. I am wondering if anyone can tell me why we use the word "used" in sentences about former activities-- "I used to go grocery shopping twice a week" or about becoming accustomed to something-- "I'm not used to getting up so early".

An uneducated guess would "lead me to believe" that: as a used road has grooves worn into it, the word developed naturally out of traveling down its path, repeatedly.

Good one, Rapunzel.

I've wondered about that myself. I used to teach ESL and it was awfully hard to convey the grammar, not really the meaning, of "used to." I'm hard-put to think of a synonym. My only reliable reference/cognate/clue is the Portuguese "I was accustomed to..." I'm sure one of our scholars will leap into the breach, as they are used to doing.

use...
21. With to and inf.: To be accustomed or wont to do something.
In very frequent use from c 1400, but now only in past tense used to... and colloq. in did (not) use (or used) to

In slightly older English (say Jane Austen) you'll find 'use' = 'be accustomed to' more alive in the construction: 'I do not use to do this'. It is now frozen, only the past tense is used, there is a problem with the negative, and the pronunciation has changed.

I would like a convenient contraction like 'isn't' or 'gonna' or 'hafta' for the actual pronunciation, but nothing lends itself: 'ustu'/'usta' looks glaringly un-English or fails to show the sound. I believe (offhand) that it's never pronounced like the normal verb 'used' with a /zd/.

As for the negative, is it "didn't ustu" or "ust not to"? Even in my own speech I can never decide.

NicholasW believes (offhand) that "used to" is never pronounced like the normal verb 'used' with a /zd/.

I agree, "I used to get up late" and "I used two cans of paint" are pronounced differently, the former "used" ending with a /t/, the latter wit the /zd/ as NicholasW states.

Listening to myself, for the negative I say "used not to get up till 12" or "used to not get up till 12", both still with the /t/ ending. I'm not sure about the grammatical validity of the second but I use it.

Rod

To this US'n ear "used not to..." doesn't sound right. "Used to not..." sounds better despite the split infinitive but I would probably use "didn't used to...".

Regarding the member of the gonna-wanna-hafta group I have seen useta. It still has some problems with that e in there ( in the same vein I useta pronounce oncet wun-set) but, in the words of the noted philologist, "Wutcha gunna do?"

Whatcha gunna do is challenge the notion that "used to not" is a split infinitive.

If this unnoteworthy philologist hadn't already packed away her grammar books (should have left that for the last!) I'd look it up. But my feeling is "to" belongs to "used" and not to the infinitive that follows it.

As for the negative, is it "didn't ustu" or "ust not to"? Even in my own speech I can never decide.

I'm with Faldage and (probably) the rest of the Norte Americanos: used not to doesn't sound right: around here, the construction is always some form of "yoostu/yoosta," whether negative or positive. Yoostu/a is not split. I yoosta go to school, but now yoose guys are my educators.

Noted philologist AnnaS notes "to" belongs to "used" and not to the infinitive that follows it.

Interesting point AnnaS. Of course we all know that not all infinitives contain to. Is this a case of to being the particle of a phrasal verb? That interpretation would certainly clear up any nagging doubts as to the validity of many a construction.

I always say "I never used to". English being my foreign language, I suspect I must have been taught that way, but it sounds good to me. "Used not to", "didn't use to", or "used to not" sound a bit strange for me...

I always say "I never used to".

Marianna, it sounds just fine to me too, except that "never" adds a level of absoluteness that is missing in the original negative. In many cases I suspect that the negative would be rephrased as a positive. "I used to not get up until.." ==> "I used to lie in bed until..". I am not sure how much rephrasing to avoid awkward constructions the brain does without us being aware of it, or even if it is possible to find out.

Rod

The way I'd phrase it would be "When I was little I never used to like Brussel sprouts, but now I really enjoy them". But I do see that it seems a bit more total than the others. You are right about our rejiggling the sentence so it sounds more correct, sometimes consciously, and (probably) sometimes subconsciously. I don't know how one would find out, though...

A liked xara's (You lurking out there xara? Come back. We miss you) concept about a word or phrase "tasting" right.

I tend to use the word 'usually' in those circumstance...I never usually got up before noon. 'Got' puts it in the past tense and 'usually' softens the finality of the word 'never'.

I use both forms: I didn't use to (or never used to for emphasis) and I used to not, but for me there's a difference between them.

For me, "I didn't use to" just mentions a past situation, but "I used to not" implies a conscious intent.

Thus, "I didn't use to watch soap operas but now I find them addictive." That's just the way it was, I didn't watch them.
But, "I used to not watch soap operas" would imply that I'd made a conscious decision not to watch them for some reason.

Thus I would always say "I never used to like fish" rather than "I used to not like fish", since liking is not a matter of conscious decision.

Bingley

Goodness! It's all getting too compliated for me.
I'll just use whatever falls out of my mouth and not think any more about it.
I used to think consciously about grammar when I was younger but I later got used to talking differently from the way I usually speak in casual conversation.

"I didn't use to" just mentions a past situation, but "I used to not" implies a conscious intent.

Good one, Bingley. I never would have been able to articulate this distinction, but since you point it out, I can see it and I agree!

Bingley>For me, "I didn't use to" just mentions a past situation, but "I used to not" implies a conscious intent.

but this is complicated by the usual inability of a listener to distinguish the past tense of "used to", as in this July 20 AP quote:
"I use to watch him a lot. He's someone I tried to imitate."

"Use to (or 'used to'?), we would go over ter Aunt Jenny's twict a week." Has anyone come across this adverbial usage of "use to" in the sense of "formerly" or "at one time". ( I practice my silent, invisible "wince, gag or sob" whenever I hear it, which is, alas, too often.) I think (and hope and pray) that it is merely a rare, moribund USA rural, or perhaps Southern regional, usage. In any case, yet another barbarism, another tiltable windmill for the rusty, blunted lance* of Ol' Scrib. (* Go ahead and have fun with that phrase, if you like. We need a chuckle or two.)

another tiltable windmill for the rusty, blunted lance* of Ol' Scrib. (* Go ahead and have fun with that phrase, if you like. We need a chuckle or two.)

oh, alright then.... ""

GOOD to have you back, dear scribbler!! We've missed you!

Used to = formerly is not local usage, Scribbler. I hear "used to" to mean "formerly" more often than not.

There's nothing wrong with a blunted lance, is there? And what's Rusty got to do with this?

"Use to (or 'used to'?), we would go over ter Aunt Jenny's twict a week."

I believe that is just a shortened version of, "It used to be that we would go..."

My dear, my dear--it is so very lovely to be graced by your words once again. If by lance you mean pen, then I must believe it has grown rusty and blunted through lack of use here. You have just cleaned and sharpened it a bit, and I know it will take very little effort to get that writing instrument in 'mighty' perfect working order once more.
Oh, I have to say it again: how I love you!

I once saw a textbook for an English language course in Hungary. It offered this usage: Usedn't you to to shopping twice weekly? Has anyone ever heard that one? Or was this just an invention of the textbook's author?
It makes perfect sense, but it strikes me as completely foreign.

Usedn't you to go shopping twice weekly?

Good grief! I get brain stutter just trying to read that. I don't know what would happen if I actually tried to say it.

use to

Not at all, Scribbler! I grew up in central New Jersey, and my ear always heard and I always said use rather than used. I never realized the awkwardness of it all until I wrestled with a line of a poem I was writing which read "boats use/used only to a shiver of glassen ripple on their reach of bay." Use falls on my ear correctly, but it just doesn't fit in written form, or the linquistically formal diction of the piece for that matter. I settled on used, but it still never sounds quite write to me. But I guess I'll get use to it!

Usedn't you to to shopping - - -

This construction is by no means unusual in UK.