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betwixt
Posted: Sun May 01, 2011 12:17 am
by sardith
Ok, I'll admit I was caught up in the William and Kate nuptials last week, but while most of my friends were keeping score on all the fashions, I was loving this one word that kept popping up during the ceremony:
betwixt
I understand it is used in the U.S. as well, but they use it so grandly in the U.K.
Is it completely interchangeable with
between?
Really doesn't matter. I think I shall try to bring it back into prominence, though I think that Californians might be too independent to budge!
Oh well,
Sardith
Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 6:16 am
by bnjtokyo
The British dictionaries label it "archaic." It is defined as meaning "between" and appears to be frozen in place in the idiom "betwixt and between."
I agree that it is a nice word. Maybe, just betwixt you and me, we can use it more often.
betwixt
Posted: Mon May 02, 2011 12:41 pm
by sardith
It's a deal, bnjtokyo!
But, just betwixt you and me, how're you doing over there betwixt all of the aftershocks and Techtonic plate settling?
Sardith
Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 8:23 pm
by Slava
Aye, this word is almost exclusively met in the phrase betwixt and between. Though, as sardith uses it, it works.
I can see other such ways to use it in a modern sense, but not as a universal replacement for between. I just can't see saying something like, "My house is on the left, betwixt Oak and Maxwell."
betwixt
Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 11:02 pm
by sardith
It just sounds so wonderful tripping off the British tongue, though.
I guess I'll just wait for the next Royal wedding!
Sardith
p.s. The one saying I think would be improved:
'caught betwixt a rock and a hard place'
Re: betwixt
Posted: Thu May 26, 2011 12:55 am
by Stargzer
...
p.s. The one saying I think would be improved:
'caught betwixt a rock and a hard place'
During their war many years ago, one local Baltimore DJ said that Iran was a country caught between Iraq and a hard place ...