"have ever been"

[Laurence Horn]

At 3:14 PM +0200 9/17/06, David Sutcliffe wrote:
>Forgive me if this has already been said!

It has been, at some length, but you're forgiven.

LH

>(I am touring and hardly have time
>to read all the postings). But an important point here, surely, is that "ever"
>can or could formerly  mean "always". As in "you were ever the cheerful one"
>or similar quote; I think Swift in Gulliver' s Travels has "their language is
>ever on the flux".
>In this sense, there is no problem with "I am now, and have ever been..." and
>so on.
>
>David
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org