more excrescent "'s"

[Charles Doyle]

"How comes?" (with its 300,000+ Google hits--not all of them pertinent, of course): perhaps an ellipsis of the idiom "How comes it that . . .?"

OED's definition of "how come?" implies an origin of the phrase: "how did (or does) it come about (that)?"

Curiously, OED says the phrase is "orig. U.S.," citing Bartlett's _Dictionary of Americanisms_ (1848). However, Bartlett's entry (a portion not quoted by the OED) says, "Doubtless an English phrase, brought over by the original settlers . . ."!

Ignoring the form of the verb, Bartlett gives the meaning of "how come?" as "How came it?"

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 29 Apr 2007 17:53:30 -0400
>From: Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
>Subject: Re: more excrescent "'s"
>
>When I was in the first year of high school in 1950-51,, I had a teacher who always used "How comes?" in place of "How come?" Howerver, as an Ecuadorian, he had the excuse of not being a native speaker of Engliah.
>
>-Wilson

>
>On 4/29/07, Arnold M. Zwicky <zwicky at csli.stanford.edu> wrote:
>>
>> way back on Oct 12, 2006, at 7:42 AM, i wrote:
>>
>> > 1.  "how come's" corresponding to "how's come" 'how come'
>> >
>> arnold

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