[lit-ideas] Today is brought to you by the word... Badly ...
- From: Ursula Stange <Ursula@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 27 Mar 2006 09:06:06 -0500
Had to chuckle at that last paragraph....
Ursula
-------------------------------------------------
Today's Word: Badly (Adverb)
Pronunciation: ['bæd-li]
Definition 1: In a bad fashion or manner; to a great degree; very much.
Usage 1: Today's word has long been under assault when used as an
overcorrective to what was never a problem in the first place. It's
taking the place of its shorter sibling, the adjective "bad," in
reference to physical and emotional feeling. The adjective "bad"
describes the noun it modifies, the pronoun subject "I" in the sentence
"I feel bad." That means that I might have a cold (physical use) or feel
a bit blue (emotional). In the sentence "I feel badly," "badly," the
adverb form, modifies the verb "to feel." Thus, it more likely connotes
that I'm wearing gloves.
Suggested Usage: With other verbs, the distinction is clearer. We can
only say (correctly) "I need the book badly" or "I want the book badly"
for here only the verb may be modified, not the subject. All this points
up the fact that the adverbial suffix -ly is another endangered
grammatical marker in English. In the southern US life goes "real slow,"
rather than "really slowly," showing an even deeper erosion. It may be
time to think of linguistic ecology and English as an endangered
language. A side note: the use of "bad" to mean "good" or "formidable"
(as in "one bad dude") has been around since at least 1850. How is that
for cool?
Etymology: Today's word wasn't always as ubiquitous as it is today. In
fact, it appears mysteriously at the beginning of the fourteenth century
as "badde." The best guess is that it comes from Old English bæddel "a
hermaphrodite" and badling "an effeminate man." From those words-both
negative in warlike Anglo-Saxon society-we got "badde" and then "bad,"
standing for something that's just not right. (We don't feel bad at all
about offering our good wishes to Sylvia Simon of Royal Oak, Michigan,
for requesting an explanation of the usage of today's oft-misspoken word.)
-Audra Himes, formerly, yourDictionary.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
- » [lit-ideas] Today is brought to you by the word... Badly ...
