I was talking with some people and someone used this phrase - and it struck me - fortuitously, in the manner of the phrase - how delicate and elegant it is: 'all of a sudden'. I think we miss appreciating many things right in front us, knowing them by rote.
Each word, except 'a', is used in an unconventional way, to boot.
just like that . . .
Re: all of a sudden
The origin of the phrase 'all of a sudden' is mentioned here. It dates back to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.
'Sudden' could formerly be used as a noun, hence the archaic alternative on a sudden. 'Of' in 'all of a sudden' seems similar to the temporal 'of' seen in the phrases of late and of an evening.
'Sudden' could formerly be used as a noun, hence the archaic alternative on a sudden. 'Of' in 'all of a sudden' seems similar to the temporal 'of' seen in the phrases of late and of an evening.
Re: just like that . . .
Actually, it appears "all of a sudden" does not appear in Shakespeare. In The Taming of the Shrew (before 1594?), the closest is
Tranio:
I pray sir tell me, is it possible
That love should of a sudden take such hold?
(Act I Scene 1, lns 150-1)
And in Titus Andronicus (1585?) we find
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
My lord, to step out of these dreary dumps,
How comes it that the subtle Queen of Goths
Is of a sudden thus advanced in Rome?
(Act I Sc 1 lns 391-3)
The earliest use of "all of a sudden" listed by the ngram viewer is in the "Calendar of state papers and manuscripts, relating English affairs: existing in the achieves and collection of Venice, and other libraries of northern Italy 1202 -" In 1607, someone wrote "When they came back to Constantinople suspicion was aroused and all of a sudden, Subaggi of Constantinople to search them on the supposition that they were pirates."
Tranio:
I pray sir tell me, is it possible
That love should of a sudden take such hold?
(Act I Scene 1, lns 150-1)
And in Titus Andronicus (1585?) we find
MARCUS ANDRONICUS
My lord, to step out of these dreary dumps,
How comes it that the subtle Queen of Goths
Is of a sudden thus advanced in Rome?
(Act I Sc 1 lns 391-3)
The earliest use of "all of a sudden" listed by the ngram viewer is in the "Calendar of state papers and manuscripts, relating English affairs: existing in the achieves and collection of Venice, and other libraries of northern Italy 1202 -" In 1607, someone wrote "When they came back to Constantinople suspicion was aroused and all of a sudden, Subaggi of Constantinople to search them on the supposition that they were pirates."
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