ppl of "strode"

[Michael Quinion]

Mark Mandel writes:

> the first three of these have relatively few exemplars, and no
> exemplar with /ay/ in the present and /o/ in the past (like "stride" -
> "strode").  only the fourth has any legs, and it rests on just four
> verbs with any great frequency: drive, ride, rise, write.  (note that
> all of these have /r/ before the /ay/, and that three of the four have
> an alveolar obstruent after it.  so "stride" fits well into this
> class.)

Analogy is a powerful force, I agree. What then am I analogising with
when I feel the correct past participle is "strode"> (I hadn't even
considered "stridden" until this discussion started, despite its
being urged on users by both Fowler and Garner.) A search through my
historical printed works database (derived from the Project Gutenberg
archive) finds more examples of "had strode" than of "had stridden",
including one from "Lady Chatterley's Lover": "One afternoon, as she
sat brooding, watching the water bubbling coldly in John's Well, the
keeper had strode up to her."

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <TheEditor at worldwidewords.org>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>