Boughten bread

[Beverly Flanigan]

"Boughten" is cited in Atwood's _Survey of Verb Forms in the Eastern
U.S._  as an older, "less-cultured" form but common in New England, less
common in the Middle and South Atlantic states.  He said "no cultured
informant" in the MAS or SAS used it.  Shades of my South Dakota-born but
"cultured" h.s. English teacher.  In fact, Atwood says Raven McDavid would
hear it spontaneously used, but when he questioned people about it they
denied using it--just like Fritz's class.  But both cited it in adjectival
use only, not as the participial verb; I've never heard the latter
either.  It's a kind of regularizing of the irregular though, isn't
it?  "Store-bought" strikes me as more Western, as Peter and Jim note.

Beverly

At 12:23 PM 12/10/2003 -0800, you wrote:
>I have been interested in this form for a long time. I think this form is
>much more common than many people realize.  I often hear people,
>particularly students, say 'boughten' and  I make a mental note. Several
>days later I'll ask the student or entire class whether they have heard
>it.  I find it most curious when someone who said 'boughten' two days
>earlier claims never to have heard it (Maybe they just don't listen to
>what they say).  I also periodically hear something like this "I have
>boughten a new cd player."
>fritz
>
> >>> pmcgraw at LINFIELD.EDU 12/10/03 09:02AM >>>
>I never heard "boughten" alone, but "store-bought" has always been used in
>our family to designate something not homemade.  I dimly remember starting
>out with "store-boughten" way back in my childhood in S. California and/or
>Oregon (late 40s-early 50s), and switching to "store-bought" in response to
>a parental correction.
>
>Peter Mc.
>
>--On Wednesday, December 10, 2003 10:45 AM -0500 "James A. Landau"
><JJJRLandau at AOL.COM> wrote:
>
> > OED has "store-bought" with a suspiciously late first citation of 1952
> > (John Steinbeck, _East of Eden_), and a variation not so far mentioned in
> > ADS_L, "store-boughten" with an 1883 first citation.
>
>
>
>*****************************************************************
>Peter A. McGraw       Linfield College        McMinnville, Oregon
>******************* pmcgraw at linfield.edu ************************