PSA

[cosmolinguist]

"Wherefore" doesn't mean where. It means why. When Juliet so famously says "Wherefore art thou Romeo?" she's not asking "Hey, Romeo, where are ya?" (though you'd think she might be, since he shows up soon--in fact he's already eavesdropping on her--but she doesn't know that; I guess she hasn't seen the play). She's asking "Why are you Romeo?" As in "Why are you a Montague and not belonging to some other family--any other one, I'm not picky--so my life won't be so difficult? And short." Well, maybe she didn't say "and short," because she hasn't seen the play and probably thinks she's immortal, because all teenagers do.

Either way, that doesn't change the fact that "wherefore" doesn't mean where. People who use it as if it does get on my nerves.

Comments

[hilker.livejournal.com]

Can we call a moratorium on “methinks” while we’re at it?

[cosmolinguist]

So many strange people think they're Elizabethan ...

The only experience I have with "methinks" (except knowing that the line is "the lady doth protest too much, methinks" instead of "methinks the lady doth protest too much") is the professor of my grammar and language class saying that "methinks" is the closest word we have in English to the reflexive case (if I'm remembering this right); it's not wrong to think it means "I think," but it really means "it thinks me." And that's just cool. :-)

But yes, struck from the record! We have decreed it.

[offensive-mango.livejournal.com]

I've talked about this before (http://www.online-communication.net/weblog/2004/04/attention-everyone-or-pet-peeves.htm) too. Very grating, isn't it?

[cosmolinguist]

"Penultimate" is another good word. I only know that one because I remember my high-school band director once told me to play the penultimate measure of something, and I didn't know what he was talking about. He explained (I should've known, since I know what words like "penumbra" mean), I played that measure, and now I associate the word "penultimate" with playing a Dvorak piece on the bassoon.

I suppose this is what I get for having a band director who majored in English as an undergrad.

[ex-humanfema327.livejournal.com]

Mine too - but how can I get everyone I'm ever likely to meet to read your journal, specifically this entry? A t-shirt with a URL on it i should think. Or I could hand out old-fashioned dictionaries.

[cosmolinguist]

I think it'd be funny if you had a t-shirt with this URL on it. (It'd probably be easier than handing out dictionaries.) Though you could just write " 'Wherefore' does not mean why!" on the shirt.

[cosmolinguist]

Whoops. You know what I meant!

[ex-humanfema327.livejournal.com]

though that'd be confusing as wherefore does mean why. in swedish, varför means why. isnt that nice.

[cosmolinguist]

Yeah, the "not" snuck in there without my permission.

[tragicallyjulia.livejournal.com]

I hear ya. I had a high school English class where we were supposed to interpret that line or that whole scene (I can't quite remember), and I was the only person who knew the correct meaning! Okay, it was a regular bone-head English class, as opposed to an Honors class, but still...

[cosmolinguist]

They didn't even have honors clases in my school, so I know what it's like to be the only person knowing something, especially in an English class.

This makes me sound really arrogant, but my point isn't that I was smarter than everybody ... you know what I mean. (I hope. :-))

[tragicallyjulia.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean, and I don't ever think you could be arrogant. Confident of your skills and knowledge - sure - but you have every right to be!

[sporksoma.livejournal.com]

You mean that there are actually people out there who didn't KNOW that already? -=dumbfounded=-

[cosmolinguist]

I saw it in either a headline or a quote--I don't remember which--yesterday on a website that should know better.

I know I should know better than to want to copyedit the Internet, but sometimes I can't help it.

[angel-thane.livejournal.com]

Now if only Romeo had had your lecture on what 'wherefore' means, he'd not have jumped out of the bushes screaming "Here I am!"