strong like ball

[Jonathan Lighter]

I wonder if for/bed/  isn't a survival in addition to being a spelling pronunciation. OED lists as ME past-tense forms

                       forbe'ad, forbead, forbet(t), forbed(e), forbed, forbeed.

"Forbid" as a past is listed for the 16th through 18th centuries. Apparently somebody just wasn't paying attention for the past 200 years.

JL

sagehen <sagehen at WESTELCOM.COM> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: sagehen
Subject: Re: strong like ball
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>I've just heard a character on CSI: NY say for[beid] for "forbade." O,
>tempora! O, mores!

>-Wilson
~~~~~~~~~
Ho! At least the right word was in the script. Seems that most people
nowadays don't even know the form, much less to say "forBAD." I hear
"forbid" for both present & past more often than not.
AM

~@:> ~@:> ~@:> ~@:>


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