[lit-ideas] "To-Morrow is _another_ Morrow?
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 22:13:36 EDT
In a message dated 9/21/2004 7:46:13 PM Eastern Standard Time,
Robert.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
'Tomorrow is another day,' is a tautology, even though it would be
difficult to say what things would be like if it tomorrow weren't another
day,
or what empirical evidence would falsify the observation that it is. If
someone
understands it as a tautology, and thereby uninformative, they've understood
it
wrongly. 'Tomorrow is another day' (it's hard to spell out precisely what
idioms
'really' mean) can either be an attempt at consolation, or a warning not to
get
too excited about how well things are going.
-----
I'm not very fluent in Anglo-Saxon, but I understand that the Anglo-Saxons
did have another word for 'tomorrow', possibly shorter. 'Tomorrow', rather,
makes reference to the 'morn[ing]'. So if you look at it closely, 'tomorrow is
[another] day' is partially false in being incomplete -- a day is the
conjunction of a morning, a noon, an afternoon, and a night.
Perhaps the origin of the phrase was,
"The day after today, there is a morning"
which is an existential guess at best.
More on the OED below. It seems to me that what is tautologous is:
"Tomorrow is another morrow"
but even there I'm not sure. Cf. 'to-day':
"Today is another day"
looks contradictory (rather than tautologous), and ditto should look
"Tomorrow is another morrow". It looks like TOmorrow is today's morning --
grammatically speaking.
The quotes below show that English speakers have had a bit of a troublem
trying to grasp what they mean by 'tomorrow' (cfr. French 'demain', poses the
same problems). I guess the Anglo-Saxon way of putting it was, oh so much
clear.
Cheers
JL
---
"tomorrow"
[Middle English from toto<NOB, tomorwen (see tomorn), with dropping of final
-n, and later of -e, as in inflexions of nouns and vbs., etc. When the final
e was lost, w was vocalized to -ow, as in arrow, borrow, sorrow. Cf.
morrow]
1275 Passion our Lord 140 in O.E. Misc. 41
Er hit beo day to morewe al Eer hit schal go.
1290 S. Eng. Leg. I. 393/29
us time to-moruwe cum ein.
1297 R. GLOUC. (Rolls) 2838
Hii Hii tomorwe ariue at te hauene of toteneys.
1320 Sir Tristr. 2089
To morwe y schal hir se.
1380 Sir Ferumb. 3513
<NOBR>T on e spryng of e day..to e pauyllouns take e way.
1382 WYCLIF Ecclus. xx. 16
To day leeneth a man, and to moru [1388 to morewe] he asketh it bi ple.
1386 CHAUCER Knt.'s T. 1544
Thanne helpe me lord tomorwe in my bataille.
1426 AUDELAY Poems 25
To-morw or hit be day.
1484 CAXTON Fables of Ã?sop V. viii,
To morowe on the mornyng..sende me a dyssh ful of mylk.
1568 GRAFTON Chron. II. 368
Euery day in the weeke it was sayde, he departeth to morwe.
1628 PRESTON New Covt. (1634) 435
This doing of it now, and now, and to morrow, and to morrow, these little
distances deceive us, and delude us.
1709 PRIOR Song â??If wine & music have the powerâ??, But She to Morrow will
return.
1897 Outing (U.S.) XXIX. 383/2
â??Sometime; not to-day; to-morrowâ??. This is the stereotyped answer which a
Turk has always at his tongue's end.
1871, etc. [see jam tomorrow s.v. JAM n.2 b].
1957 Listener 15 Aug. 223/1
An accelerated movement towards independence: Ghana yesterday; Nigeria,
French West Africa, the Cameroons, tomorrow.
1699 J. KIRKTON Hist. Ch. Scot. (1817) 126
After he hade drunk liberally in the Advocate's house that same day, went to
bed in health, but was taken up stark dead to~morrow morning.
1717 WODROW Let. to J. Hart 8 Oct.,
A committee for peace was proposed to-morrow, who heard the ministers and
Mr. Anderson upon the heads of complaint.
1386 CHAUCER Melib. 829
The goodnesse at thou mayst do this day, do it,..ne delaye it nat til to
morwe.
1485 CAXTON Chas. Gt. II. II. xi. 121 It is better to abyde tyl to morowe.
1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 98b,
Knowest thou whether he shall liue vnto to morowe.
1535 COVERDALE Prov. xxvii. 1
Make not thy boost of tomorow.
1600 FAIRFAX Tasso VI. v,
To morrowes sun shall spread his timely raies.
1667 COWLEY Ess. in Verse & Prose, Danger Procrastination,
Our Yesterdays To morrow now is gone.
1711 ADDISON Spect. No. 163 11
A..Story..which I shall relate at length in my To-morrow's Paper.
1758 FRANKLIN Prel. Addr. Pennsylv. Alm.,
One to-day is worth two to-morrows.
1832 TENNYSON May Queen i, To-morrow 'ill be the happiest time of all the
glad New-year.
1838 LONGFELLOW Psalm Life iii,
To act, that each to-morrow Find us farther than to-day.
1943 J. B. PRIESTLEY Daylight on Saturday ii. 5
He belonged to tomorrow's new ruling class.
1959 Brno Studies in English I. 73
Progressive poets preferred to look forward into distant future and
dreamed..of a better to-morrow.
1979 Guardian 30 Oct. 32/8
The Prime Minister..told the Wales TUC that British industry was not going
to get tomorrow's jobs â??unless we move into tomorrow's worldâ??.
1275 LAY. 17732
Are to morewe heue.
1382 WYCLIF Acts xxiii. 20 That to morwe day thou bringe forth Poul into the
counceil.
1470-85 MALORY Arthur I. xxiii. 70 He commaunded that..his best hors and
armour..be withoute the cyte or to morowe daye.
1539 BIBLE (Great) Matt. vi. 34 Care not then for the morow, for to morowe
day shall care for it selfe.
1588 SHAKES L.L.L. III. i. 161, I wil come to your worship to morrow
morning.
1596 1 Hen. IV, II. iv. 564, I will by to morrow Dinner time, Send him to
answere thee.
1681 OTWAY Soldier's Fort. III. i, He shall be Crows-meats by to-morrow
Night.
1782 F. BURNEY Cecilia VIII. iii, To-morrow morning I shall but call to
see how she is. Mod. Can you spend to-morrow evening with us?
1725 BAILEY Erasm. Colloq. (1878) I. 70 He shall have it in a very little
Time... When? To morrow come never? [orig. ad Calendas Græcas].
1770 COLMAN Man & Wife III. 46 Marc. Very soon, my dear! to-day, or
to-morrow, perhaps. Sally. To-morrow come never, I believe.
1825 BROCKETT N.C. Gloss. s.v. Nivver, To-morrow come To-morwhen two
Sundays meet together.
1862 G. J. WHYTE-MELVILLE Queen's Maries II. xxii. 10 Why should you thus
risk your life as if there was no to-morrow?
1980 Guardian Weekly 3 Feb. 1/3 Oil supplies that Americans at home
continue to consume as though there were no tomorrow.
1527 J. RASTELL Calisto & Melebea sig. C1v, Well mother to morrow is a
new day.
1603 FLORIO tr. Montaigne's Ess. II. iv. 57 A letter..beeing delivered
him..at supper, he deferred the opening of it, pronouncing this by~word, To
morrow
is a new day.
1824 SCOTT St. Ronan's III. vii. 192 We will say no more of it at present...
To~morrow is a new day.
1927 P. GREEN Field God I. 148 Go to it, you Mag and Lonie! To-morrow's
another day, and you'll need all you can hold.
1956 M. DICKENS Angel in Corner vi. 90 â??You can run along now... Those few
letters will keep until the morning.â??.. â??But there will be a whole heap of
new ones by the morning.â??.. â??I know, dear... If the letters didn't come,
that would be the time to start worrying. But tomorrow is another day.â??
1980 B. PYM Few Green Leaves xiii. 107 He would probably have said nothing
and so missed his opportunity. Still, tomorrow was another day.
1810 COLERIDGE Lett., to Wife (1895) 563 He is as great a to-morrower to
the full as your poor husband.
1880 G. MEREDITH Tragic Com. xiv, The postponer, the deferrer, or, as we
might say, the to-morrower.
1824 J. MCCULLOCH Scotl. IV. 300 The Cras hoc fiet of this tomorrowing
country.
1897 Bookman Nov. 235 If to-morrow..in its essential to-morrowness, has no
objective existence.
(http://0-dictionary.oed.com.csulib.ctstateu.edu/cgi/entry_main/00254172?query_type=word&queryword=tomorrow&edition=2e&first=1&max_to_show=10&single=1&sort
_type=alpha&case_id=BLet-SCta6q-1262&p=0&sp=0&qt=1&ct=0&ad=0&d=1-D#top)
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