"come to pass" construed as "cease"?

Alice Faber faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU
Sat Sep 15 23:42:44 UTC 2007


Stephen Goranson wrote:
> BTW, when I posted text from a 1940 book with the sequence of words "fungus
> among us" I didn't claim it was slang. I offered no commentary as I thought its
> interest, if any, was that it may, or may not, have influenced the creation of
> the sentence "there is a fumgus among us"--on the tacit assumption that the
> last three words are more remarkable than the first three.)
>
> FWIW, here's a use of "come to pass" that I don't recall encountering before.
>
> In a column in the Duke student paper The Chronicle (7 Sept p15):
>
> ....Last year I was a (math) rock star. My sprit was as unrestrained as a matrix
> with four columns and just one pivot (for all of you Canadian Studies majors out
> there: This means I was exceedingly free-spirited).
> Alas, all that has come to pass. The weight of the world of advanced math
> courses has crushed my formerly gentle demeanor....

I don't know about "come to pass", but I'm quite taken with the phrase
"Canadian Studies majors" with the apparent meaning of "underwater
basketweaving". But, then I googled on the phrase "Canadian Studies
major", and, to my surprise, Duke has such a major. Oh well.

--
 =======================================================================
Alice Faber                                       faber at haskins.yale.edu
Haskins Laboratories                            tel: (203) 865-6163 x258
New Haven, CT 06511 USA                               fax (203) 865-8963

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