quote = 'say or write (something memorable)'

Mark Mandel thnidu at GMAIL.COM
Sat Aug 28 01:28:02 UTC 2010


But seriously: Could not this usage have arisen, at least in part, by
mistaking "quoth" for an archaic form of "quote" -- no relation, acc. to OED
-- and inferring that "quote" means or can mean 'say'?  I have no idea how
or whether this idea could be tested, but it's a possibility.

m a m

On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 12:17 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
> Reading this reminded me of the many times I read it in freshman themes in
> the 1980s and probably '70s:
>
> 2010 _WikiAnswers_
>
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_quoted_The_more_you_sweat_in_peace_the_less_you_bleed_in_war
> :Who
> quoted The more you sweat in peace the less you bleed in war?* *sun tzu*.*
>
> JL


On Thu, Aug 19, 2010 at 10:55 PM, Mark Mandel <thnidu at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> O, God, please, nevermore!
>
>
> On Wed, Aug 18, 2010 at 7:12 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Maybe it's a hypercorrection of _quoth_.

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