"Needful"?

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:33 AM -0400 10/21/08, Wilson Gray wrote:
>My impression is that he used it to mean "things that come in handy or
>are needed, necessities of life," etc.
>
>-Wilson

But knowing Stephen King (although I confess not the book in
question), he may well have intentionally been referencing both
senses of the term.

LH

>
>On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 11:53 PM, Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>  Poster:       Marc Velasco <marcjvelasco at GMAIL.COM>
>>  Subject:      Re: "Needful"?
>>
>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>  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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>>>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>>>  Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
>>>  Subject:      "Needful"?
>>>
>>>
>>>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>>  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.
>-----
>-Mark Twain
>
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