Re: from whence [WAS: Abuse of imbalance.]

On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 11:55:40 GMT, arnow@xxxxxxxxx (Murray Arnow)
wrote:

Archie Valparaiso wrote:

Objection, Your Honor! If we are going to fall into brazen
high-falutindom -- and "hence", "thence" and "whence" are unarguably
it -- we should surely try to use them properly. "Henceforth" means
"from here and now onwards", which explains why we don't say "from
henceforth" -- the fromness is included in the -enceness. Why, then,
say "from whence"?


Overruled. Precedent is on the side of hizzonor. Since time immemorial,
logic never applied to idiomatic usage.

Appeal! Since its everyday use is almost exclusively limited to the
expression "from whence he/she/it/they came", it's not idiomatic usage
but a case of mock/cod contrived archaic English getting the grammar
Dead Wrong (as in "wherefore art my car keys?"and so on).

--
Archie Valparaiso
.