[Ads-l] Efforting

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The Oxford English Dictionary has an entry for the verb form of
"effort", but it is labelled obsolete, and it does not quite match the
current usage.

[Begin excerpt from OED]
effort, v.
Obs.
trans. To strengthen, fortify.
a1661   T. Fuller Worthies (1662) Chesh. 180   He efforted his spirits
with the remembrance..of what formerly he had been.
[End excerpt from OED]

A court case in New Jersey in 1850 apparently employed "effort" as a
verb. I've only looked in Google Books with a single query, but it
seems that there are multiple instances in the 1800s that are similar
to the modern usage.

Year: 1851
Title: Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in The Supreme Court and
the Court of Errors and Appeals of the State of New Jersey
Reporter: A. O. Zabriskie
Volume: 2
Printer: Phillips & Boswell, Trenton, New Jersey
Internal Date: July Term 1850
Quote Page 516

https://books.google.com/books?id=sEgtAQAAMAAJ&q=efforting#v=snippet&q=efforting&f=false

[Begin excerpt]
The question was objected to upon the ground that the plaintiff was
thereby efforting to give his own declarations in evidence.
[End excerpt]

Garson


On Fri, Dec 29, 2017 at 2:47 PM, Shawnee Moon <moon.shawnee at gmail.com> wrote:
> I’m an insomniac. Having lived in Los Angeles for years, I got used to watching car chases; they cut into programming and there always seemed to be one on. So over the holidays I got a little homesick and watched some car chases on YouTube.
>
> Anyway, last night I watched a chase involving motorcycles. The overhead newscaster said (first bit in parentheses are not verbatim)
>
> “(Two motorcycles were involved) and they were efforting to get on the turnpike...”
>
> Efforting? Trying, attempting, endeavoring, intending...
> Efforting?
>
> Mailed from the Moon 🌜
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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