Came across ‘hope springs eternal’, and got to wondering if ‘eternal’ is ‘officially’ an adverb, as is ‘slow’.
Well, it is in the OED, but under ‘quasi-adv.’
Is this a generally accepted way of saying, ‘yeah, but in the way of poetic license’?
Okay, did some more research:
“In some unrevised OED entries, quasi- (meaning ‘having some but not all of the properties of’, ‘almost, virtually’) is used to modify grammatical terms. For example, a sense of a noun might be described as ‘quasi-adj.’, indicating that the noun is being used as if it were an adjective, or is very close to being an adjective. In revised entries, this term is not used: a word behaving as an adjective, for example, is treated as an adjective.”
🎵 Wishin’ an’ . . . 🎵
🎵 Wishin’ an’ . . . 🎵
Last edited by brogine on Wed Dec 14, 2022 10:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: 🎵 Wishin’ an’ . . . 🎵
To me, it 'feels' more like an adjective. 'Eternal' is what hope is, rather than how it springs. Compare the following:Came across ‘hope springs eternal’, and got to wondering if ‘eternal’ is ‘officially’ an adverb, as is ‘slow’.
Well, it is in the OED, but under ‘quasi-adv.’
He died happy.
The river ran dry.
They are sitting pretty.
Re: 🎵 Wishin’ an’ . . . 🎵
Point well-taken. I think I was attracted to the more poetic reading.
But now I think of it . . . if the hope is eternal, why and whence is it springing?
But now I think of it . . . if the hope is eternal, why and whence is it springing?
Re: 🎵 Wishin’ an’ . . . 🎵
Something like an everlasting fountain, perhaps? The fountain is eternal; the water springs.
Re: 🎵 Wishin’ an’ . . . 🎵
Excellent point, although I’m not conceding.
Incidentally, the only citation of the phrase in the OED is in
Pope’s 1733 An Essay on Man.
Incidentally, the only citation of the phrase in the OED is in
Pope’s 1733 An Essay on Man.
- Slava
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Re: 🎵 Wishin’ an’ . . . 🎵
I'd go with a simple poetically licensed shortening of 'eternally'. "Hope springs forever" doesn't quite cut it, does it?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Re: 🎵 Wishin’ an’ . . . 🎵
But is it possible to spring eternally? 'Eternally' implies an unchanging state (e.g. 'exist eternally'), whereas 'spring' implies a change of state (an upward motion).
- Slava
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Re: 🎵 Wishin’ an’ . . . 🎵
It is the unchanging state of being in spring. Ever rising.
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.
Re: 🎵 Wishin’ an’ . . . 🎵
Meanwhile, deeper in the weeds . . .
or, ‘eternal’ might be read as ‘continually’, rather than ‘continuously’.
or, ‘eternal’ might be read as ‘continually’, rather than ‘continuously’.
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