" to shod " !!

Wilson Gray hwgray at GMAIL.COM
Wed Sep 2 19:15:30 UTC 2009


Sadly, in addition to "trod, trodded," you will also find "tread,
treaded." But there were probably many who cried themselves to sleep
when "to want" ceased to mean "to lack" and, via "to need," evolved
into "to desire."

It's not heard much, if at all, nowadays. But, in my childhood, the
noun, "want," was an everyday word, unfortunately still more or less
carrying the original sense, meaning something like, "lacking the
basics of life: food, clothing, and shelter.". When I heard things
like, "Those fleeing the advance of the Wehrmacht are seriously in
want" and "The children orphaned as a consequence of the war suffer
greatly from want," I really had to work to winkle out their meanings,
since noun and verb have irreconcilable differences.

"Want" is worthy of notice? *I* _want_ a Harley, but I'm not going to
get one. So what?

-Wilson


On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 2:23 PM, Jesse Sheidlower<jester at panix.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Jesse Sheidlower <jester at PANIX.COM>
> Subject:      Re: " to shod " !!
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Wed, Sep 02, 2009 at 02:17:40PM -0400, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> At 2:09 PM -0400 9/2/09, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>> At 1:55 PM -0400 9/2/09, Wilson Gray wrote:
>>>> It means "To runners who are shod, ... " = "To runners who have shoes
>>>> on, ... " right? What's wrong with that? That's *nothing* like
>>>>
>>>> "As he quietly and carefully _trodded_ the almost-unseen trail, he was
>>>> alert to the possibility of booby-traps."
>>>>
>>>
>>> I agree that Alison's example involves a participial adjective
>>> modifying "runners", and that "to shod" is not a constituent there.
>>> But it's not hard to google up examples where it is:
>>
>> oops.  I meant to include some "to shod" examples verifying this claim.
>>
>> How much does it cost to shod a horse?
>
> [etc.]
>
> For what it's worth, I became aware some years ago that I
> internally thought of the verb _trod_ as being present tense;
> that is, although I don't think I ever said it aloud, I'd
> always think of statements like "I'm going to trod on that
> can."
>
> I don't know why my mind did this.
>
> Jesse Sheidlower
> OED
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
-Wilson
–––
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint
to come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
-Mark Twain

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