posted
We've all heard the phrases "mowing the lawn" and "wreaking havoc" but is it possible to mow something else than a lawn or wreak other things than havoc?I have never heard those 2 verbs used with any other nouns,and it seems weird that these verbs would be made for only one noun each.Has anyone heard those verbs in another context before?
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The fun thing about standards is that they come in so many varieties. Posts: 510 | From: Ontario, Canada | Registered: Sep 2004
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Posts: 2235 | From: Sussex , UK | Registered: May 2004
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posted
http://dict.leo.org/ offers "to wreak something", meaning "to bring forth sth., to cause sth." and - as Hans off said - "to mow down".
But that is a Wiki-based online dictionary, so it's not always a reliable sorce.
-------------------- My spelling is Wobbly. It's good spelling, but it Wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places. - Pooh Bear Posts: 2209 | From: Hamburg, Germany | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
You can wreak bloody murder if you so chose.
As for mow? Um.... Mow better blues?
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Richard W
Ding Dong! Merrily on High Definition TV
posted
You can mow a field of hay too, surely? Or any field, meadow or so on?
The relevant dictionary definition says "To cut down (grass, crops etc.) with a hand implement or machine". I don't see why that's unusually specific, and at one point it would have been a much more common activity. Just because your lawn is the only thing you mow, it doesn't mean that it's the only thing that you can mow.
(It can also mean part of a barn, or be an archaic word for a grimace.)
Posts: 8725 | From: Ipswich - the UK's 9th Best Place to Sleep! | Registered: Feb 2000
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posted
One man went to mow Went to mow a meadow...
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posted
Samuel Morse famously used the past tense of "wreak" in the first telegram:
"What hath God wrought?"
It was seventy-five cents collect, by the way.
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posted
'Wrought' isn't related to 'wreak' - wrought means 'work', the past participle of 'wreak' is 'wreaked'
-------------------- This is where I come up with something right? Something really clever... Posts: 6552 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2002
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posted
Don't blame me, blame my Oxford English Dictionary. Wrought is also related to wright, in such words as "cartwright" (maker of carts), "wheelwright" (maker of wheels) and "you're right," meaning I read "past tense of wrecan" wrong.
-------------------- "No hard feelin's and HOPpy New Year!"--Walt Kelly Hear what you're missing: ARTC podcasts! http://artcpodcast.org/ Posts: 7581 | From: Gainesville, Georgia | Registered: Jun 2000
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posted
Machine guns are pretty good at mowing down lots of stuff.
There are many such words that are coupled to one or a few other words, especially if you get into specialist fields. Look in your average toolbox and you'll find several such pairs, although I can't for the life of me think of one at the moment.
-------------------- /Troberg Posts: 4360 | From: Borlänge, Sweden | Registered: Nov 2005
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posted
One example of coupled words is "bode". Usually you only find bode when something does not bode well. Sometimes it can bode ill, but I don't hear that much.
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posted
welllll, you could also probably mow your shaggy carpet.
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posted
Well my dad used to tell us that he would "mow our buts down"-that was code for run or we would have a sore bottom in about 2 seconds.
In North Dakota they mow hay. They combine crops though, which confused me. I guess it all has to do with the machine they use.
Posts: 5 | From: Augusta, GA | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
Yesterday after mowing the yard I mowed the orchard. There is no grass in the orchard but it needs to be mowed a couple of times a year to prevent all the little sappling weed trees from taking over.
Posts: 399 | From: North Carolina | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
Having grown up in Wisconsin, sometimes around farms, I can attest to the phrase "Mow the field" (hayfield) being used in the 1970s.
Posts: 61 | From: Madison, WI | Registered: May 2006
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quote:Originally posted by Communication Attempt: We've all heard the phrases "mowing the lawn" and "wreaking havoc" but is it possible to mow something else than a lawn or wreak other things than havoc?I have never heard those 2 verbs used with any other nouns,and it seems weird that these verbs would be made for only one noun each.Has anyone heard those verbs in another context before?
Well, I imagine that with a language as flexible as English, finding verbs with only one specific meaning is rare. But from what I remember, in languages such as Latin that was more like the norm.
-------------------- "Everyone has problems. They only vary in design" - Mama Duck Posts: 4988 | From: Spain | Registered: Sep 2001
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None of these is as common as "wreak havoc", and some of them sound pretty bad, but they are in use.
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posted
I've heard of things that bode well often, i.e., "The show retained much of its viewership despite the change in its timeslot. This bodes well for a second season."
-Tabby the princess with claws
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"Sappiness and medieval violence: it's a wonderful combination. Like chocolate and peanut butter for the mind." -me on my fantasy novel-in-progress Posts: 2281 | From: Arizona | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
I like "vagaries of fate." You rarely hear about any other vagaries, or a single vagary.
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quote:Originally posted by Troberg: There are many such words that are coupled to one or a few other words, especially if you get into specialist fields. Look in your average toolbox and you'll find several such pairs, although I can't for the life of me think of one at the moment.
One that sprung to mind was the 'wreaking bar' that my builder used. I grew up referring to these bars as 'crow-bars' but I think it is one tool that attracts names - also heard of the bigger versions being called a 'F**k off bar'.
Also, when I was younger, I was sent to a hair-dresser for them to mow/shear my hair.
Posts: 83 | From: Auckland, New Zealand | Registered: Feb 2006
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posted
What about words that exist only with a prefix? Uncouth, comes to mind. I've never heard anyone, except my mother, refer to someone's couth (usually it was admonishing her family to show some couth), and she only did it because my dad said it wasn't a word.
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posted
According to the OED, couth was last active in the 18th century:
quote: (1728) RAMSAY 1st Answ. to Somerville 76: "Nor will North Britain yield for fouth Of ilka thing, and fellows couth To ony but her sister South."
It re-emerged through back-formation in the twentieth century exactly in the way you mom used it, Lynda, as a deliberately awkward antonym for uncouth.
Both couth and uncouth go back to Old English.
--Logoboros
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Alex Buchet
I'll Be Home for After Christmas Sales
posted
Speaking of mowing-- the grass mowed is called the math. If there was a second harvest of grass for hay, this was called the aftermath.
I'd say that to work was the intransitive, and to wreak the transitive forms of the same verb. However, in its present tense/infinitive form, "wreak" is used only pejoratively now.
Wrought-iron, anybody?
Posts: 202 | From: Paris, France | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:Originally posted by LyndaD: What about words that exist only with a prefix?
An Aussie band named Tripod wrote a very funny song on that particular topic. (Minor language warning).
You always seemed so honest and so sidious. I checked your phone bill - it was full of crepancies. But I found out one evening, you'd been creet, When you and your ex booked a motel cognito.
quote:Originally posted by Troberg: There are many such words that are coupled to one or a few other words, especially if you get into specialist fields. Look in your average toolbox and you'll find several such pairs, although I can't for the life of me think of one at the moment.
One that sprung to mind was the 'wreaking bar' that my builder used. I grew up referring to these bars as 'crow-bars' but I think it is one tool that attracts names - also heard of the bigger versions being called a 'F**k off bar'.
Also, when I was younger, I was sent to a hair-dresser for them to mow/shear my hair.
"Wrecking bar" is the term I've heard -- with a short e sound, from "to wreck." "Wreak" is pronounced with a long e sound, IME and according to Dictionary.com.
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