Saturday, April 30, 2005
Having not read it, I don't much imagine that this was included in Mr. Pinker's book, but I just came to realize it and I think it's very interesting.
Maybe a year or so ago, I was at the Whole typing up a memo with one of my gaie Supervisors (the whole company [no pun intended] is lousy with them) and he told me to type, "various assundry items." I had never heard this expression before, neither has Word's spellcheck, apparently. He insisted it was a term. I assumed it was a southern thing (he's not from, but not far from, the bayou).
Anyway, as often happens in life, I began to read and hear this expression in many other places. But whenever I tried to look up "assundry," I could not locate it. In fact, I could only find it when I would google it with "various."
In any case, I just tried it again because I wanted to use the expression on something I was writing and didn't remember if it was assundry or assundary. Although, in my defense, it's fairly difficult to remember something you never learned in the first place. In any event, I googled it, and came to discover that the expression isn't "various assundry," but "various and sundry." But due to the mangling of language that accompanies any aural and oral program, it has become "various assundry."
As far as I'm concerned, if the OED doesn't have it, then it's not a word (unless, of course, I've made it up or it's in a sociological context). So, it's various and sundry from here on out.
promulgated by SWS2.1 at 12:42.
2 comments
2 Comments:
The Language Instinct does in fact discuss this issue, though not this particular example of it. The prescriptivist in me approves of your sticking to "various and sundry," but the theoretical linguist in me acknowledges that within fifty years everybody will be saying "various assundry." Language changes; it's a fact, and much that is now "correct" English resulted from reanalysis and diffusion of older forms. Take for example the phrase "the spitting image." This was originally "the spirit and image." But "spirit" was pronounced "sprit" (a form that was, incidentally, the source of the word "sprite," as in "fairy"), and so "sprite and image" then became "spit and image," which didn't make any sense so people turned it to "spitting image." No one would now argue that "spitting image" isn't an English expression, and yet it resulted from a misinterpretation of the original phrase.
Sorry to go on and on. But read The Language Instinct. It's a truly wonderful book, smart and funny.
By 
, at
11:54 PM
The study of language is an interesting subject. i never knew that the spitting image was once the spirit anmd image. and i always figured the word was assundry as well, never sundry. good call gentlemen. good call.
By , at
11:29 PM
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