elope

Thomas Paikeday t.paikeday at SYMPATICO.CA
Sun Sep 23 03:57:32 UTC 2001


Is the use of "elope" in the old sense of "escape" common in
contemporary English? All the usages in my 1989-1990 database are in the
sense of "run away together to get married" as in "Dick eloped with
Jane"and "They eloped."

I was surprised to see the following usages in _The Day the Voices
Stopped (a memoir of madness and hope)_ by Ken Steele and Claire Berman
(Basic Books, 2001):

"For one thing, I was worried that if people knew my real name, they'd
soon learn that I'd eloped from Metropolitan...." (p. 97). "For no clear
reason, except that I was bored and was being prodded to get on with my
death, I eloped from the Lodge during one of our recreational trips...."
(p. 152)



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