Believe on me: WTF?

James Harbeck jharbeck at SYMPATICO.CA
Fri Aug 31 03:05:04 UTC 2007


Wilson is right; "believe on" is King James Version diction. I have
on uncommon occasion met people who adhere quite dogmatically to the
language of the KJV and who use "believe on Him" -- of course, in
secular things, they would say "believe in", but once God is
involved, the dialect changes (I was about to say the register
changes, but this is a big shift!). These are people who reserve
"thou" and "thee" for God and honestly believe (because no one's told
them otherwise) that this is a high formal form of address fit only
for a deity.

I should add that I've never heard anyone saying that atheists believe off God.

James Harbeck.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



More information about the Ads-l mailing list