[Lexicog] come as preposition

[David Tuggy]

My _American Heritage_ (1978) has a usage note:

_Come_ in the subjunctive form occurs in constructions such a s these:
_Come what will_ (or _may_) _I propose to remain here. Our plans will be
settled come Friday_.

I tend to agree with you that this is probably more usefully or
revealingly taken as a prepositional use, whether or not the subjunctive
was historically the source for it.

--David Tuggy

Kenneth C. Hill wrote:

>This concerns the use of the English word "come" apparently as a
>preposition. This question arises from an attempt at a good English
>translation of the following Hopi sentence:
>
>Tuho'osvàasatti-qw Humingöytiwa kareeta-y yaw húya-ni.
>become:fall-subordinator H. wagon-accusative quotative sell-future
>
>The original translation was "They say Humingöytiwa [a personal name] will
>sell his wagon in the fall (autumn)." I tried structurally revealing
>translation as "They say Humingöytiwa will sell his wagon come fall." (A
>more literal translation would be "When it becomes fall H. will sell his
>wagon.")
>
>I have not been able to find "come" in this usage in the big
>English-language dictionaries at my disposal. It might be somewhere in the
>OED (my copy is the microscopic edition), but the entry for "come" there
>is so extensive that I choose to send this email query before going
>further.
>
>Is "come" in this usage ("come fall") recognized by (any) English language
>dictionaries?
>
>--Ken
>
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