THE Reverend Wright

[Joel S. Berson]

The customary formula -- it used to be "the Rev. Mr." or "the Rev.
Dr.", depending on the absence/presence of a D.D.

The OED has reverend, adj., 1.c.:  "c. Chiefly with the. Used before
a name as a title of a member of the clergy.In British English and
varieties closely associated with it, the use of Reverend directly
before a surname (without a forename, initial, or other title, as
Doctor, Professor, etc.) and without the has typically been
considered unacceptable, although examples of this kind are
increasingly common throughout the 20th cent. In American English,
this style is widely and uncontroversially attested from at least the
19th cent."

Joel

At 9/3/2012 02:34 AM, Victor Steinbok wrote:
>I did a double take when I saw the first mention of "the Reverend
>Wright" in an Ed Klein hit piece at FoxNews.com. I thought, oh, it's
>just bad editing, a type sneaked through... But then I saw the second
>one... I guess, he really means it:
>
>>an attack on Romney's religious beliefs might encourage the
>>Republicans to reciprocate by reopening the whole tangled issue of
>>Obama and the Reverend Wright.
>>During an interview I conducted with the Reverend Wright for my book
>>"The Amateur: Barack Obama in the White House," I asked the pastor if
>>he had converted Obama from Islam to Christianity. "That's hard to
>>say," Wright replied.
>
>I suspect, Klein was thinking of the Reverend Wrong when he wrote the piece.
>
>VS-)
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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