"Needful"?

[Wilson Gray]

My impression is that he used it to mean "things that come in handy or
are needed, necessities of life," etc.

-Wilson

On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 11:53 PM, Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Poster:       Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Needful"?
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> How was it used when Stephen King wrote the book?
>
> On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 7:42 PM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
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>> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>> Subject:      "Needful"?
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>>
>> In a book published in 1891 (1st ed. 1871), the author writes of the
>> central section of Boston in the early 17th century, that in that
>> area "dwelt the notables of the town,---the governor, the elder of
>> the church, the captain of the artillery company, and the most
>> needful of the craftsmen and artificers of the humble plantation; and
>> at a short distance from it were the meeting-house, the market-house,
>> the town-house, the school-house, and the ever-flowing spring of pure
>> water."
>>
>> Am I right in understanding "needful" here as adj.1, sense 1,
>> "Requisite, necessary, indispensable, essential." -- that is, where
>> one today might say "needed, necessary, essential" -- rather than
>> sense 2, "Of a person: poor, needy; lacking the necessities of life."?
>>
>> Joel
>>
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--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
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-Mark Twain

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