• abide •
Pronunciation: ê-baid • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Verb, intransitive & transitive
Meaning: 1. (Intransitive) To live in the sense of dwell, to reside. 2. (Intransitive) To continue in existence, to exist unchanged in some state. 3. (Transitive) To tolerate, put up with, endure.
Notes: Historically the past participle of this word was abidden but the past participle assimilated with the past tense a century or so ago, so now this verb is conjugated abide, abode, (has) abode. However, since this latter form is now used for the noun (an abode), the verb seems to be converting to a regular verb: abide, abided, (has) abided. This trend will continue if this seldom used verb itself survives.
In Play: Today's poetic word has pretty much been replaced by the simpler verb (to) live in colloquial speech but remains for those unafraid of touching up their conversations with a bit of poetry: "How Lester can abide in such a hovel as he inhabits is beyond explication." The transitive sense of this verb is a more fetching substitute for stand or tolerate: "I simply cannot abide the skimpy skirts girls wear to school these days; I wish they would return to uniforms!"
Word History: Today's Good Word is a rarity, indeed: a genuine unborrowed English word. It came to us from the Old English verb abidan, comprising a-, an intensifier prefix + bidan "to remain". The same root that came through the Germanic languages to English as bidan emerged in Latin as fidere "to trust, confide" and fidus "faithful (remain unchanged)". Words with the Latin root were borrowed en mass by English in words like fiancé, affidavit, fiduciary, and confide. (We simply could not abide forgetting to thank Jaime Jamison for suggesting today's Good Word.)
ABIDE
- Dr. Goodword
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ABIDE
• The Good Dr. Goodword
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- Grand Panjandrum
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Not being Catholic, it took me about 10 seconds to get it.
High mass, or low? (Or if you prefer solemn mass or missa cantata?)
High mass, or low? (Or if you prefer solemn mass or missa cantata?)
"Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. Lately it hasn't been working."
Anonymous
Anonymous
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- Grand Panjandrum
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BD, your quick! LOL That remindes me of when I was going to church in CA. Our youth group went out to eat one night after church. When our meal came, one of the guys started to bow his head to say the blessing, picked up a piece of lettuce off his salad plate and said, "Lettuce rejoice unto the Lord...". then
"What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compaired to what lies inside us." R.W.E.
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- Grand Panjandrum
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