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From: Bob Cunningham <exw6sxq@earthlink.net>
Newsgroups: alt.languages.english
Subject: Re: used to
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Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005 00:25:01 GMT
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On Tue, 5 Jul 2005 16:53:30 +0100, Chris Croughton
<chris@keristor.net> said:
> On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 00:40:00 GMT, Bob Cunningham
> <exw6sxq@earthlink.net> wrote:
> > On Mon, 4 Jul 2005 18:48:11 +0100, Chris Croughton
> > <chris@keristor.net> said:
> >> I don't believe "usedn't" is a word in English
> >> at all <g>.
> > But it is.
> > It's in _Merriam-Webster's Unabridged Dictionary_:
> It may be in American, I said that I don't believe
> it's English <g>.
> > Main Entry: usedn't
> > Variant:or usen't [...]
> > chiefly Britain : used not
> > Not that I, for one, would ever say it.
> I might say (and have certainly heard) "he used not
> to live there", but it's not very common ("he used
> to not live there" being a lot more common).
Burchfield discusses "usedn't" in his _The New Fowler's
Modern English Usage_, (page 815 under "use"), published by
Oxford University Press.
He says of it "(Now regarded as somewhat formal)". He has a
quotation from Agatha Christie's _Poirot Loses a Clent_ (no
date): _The Mistress usedn't to sleep well at night_
But spelling is one thing, pronunciation another. I suspect
that whether it's spelled "usen't" or "usedn't", it's
pronounced ['jus@nt] ("YOOSSuhnt"), just as both "used to"
and "use to" are pronounced ['just@] ("YOOSStuh").
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