"Jürgen R." <jurgenr@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:fv7e2a$c94$1@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> <ttk5079@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> schrieb im Newsbeitrag
>
news:be3a9894-2c73-4fdc-b7b6-815cc6327cb4@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Apr 28, 1:10 pm, Jürgen R. <jurg...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>>
>> >The clock will soon have stricken 12 for chess journalists
>> >without a command of the irregular verb forms.
>
>> I believe "stricken" is quite proper here. I've seen hundreds of TV
>> and movie courtroom scenes where an attorney says "I move that
>> statement be stricken from the record." By the same token, a rule may
>> be stricken from the books.
>
> Fowler: 'stricken' - this archaic p.p. of strike survives chiefly in
> particular phrases, & especially in senses divorced from those
> now usual with the verb; then gives examples: poverty-stricken,
> etc.
Jurgen finds the right point: there are several points.
Even English usage various considerably over time. The original word in
'English' is from A. Sax; STRICAN; with the usual sense of 'to go
directly'.
In fact from the normative verb form there are given some 21 definitions
of
the word - earlier spelled STREKE. Earliest rendition I can find is from
the
Anglo Saxon:
He sall noght eftyr hys lyfes ende
Weende strycke to purgatory,
Bot even to helle withowten mercy.
// Hampole, MS Bowes, p. 105.
STRICAN: to go rapidly in a straight course
ASTRICAN: to strike, to smite
D. strijken; to stroke
G. streichen;
Icel. strykja; to stroke, to flog
['stroke' is a derivative]
In England there is also STRETT; a straight way, and even STRAIT; meaning
/to straighten, to puzzle/ [as if to say, to straighter one's thoughts or
ideas].
It is a fascinating observation that many "Americanisms" are actually
older
than current English ones; since the early 1600's American English often
recorded words which were latterly superceded in England itself.
Receding a thousand years there is also: STRAKE: to go; to proceed, 'to
strake about, cir***cere,' [MS Devonsh. Glossary]
The stormes straked with the wynde,
The wawes to-bote bifore and bihynde.
// Cursor Mundi, MS Coll. Trin. Cantab. f. 12.
An original sense can also be that of latter usage - as in the 1960's
people
were called 'straights' in exactly the same way as here below [severe,
straight-laced, strict]:
Of his ordres he wol streit, and he was in greete
fere
For to ordeini eni man bote he the betere were.
// Like of Thomas Beket, ed. Black, p. 14
I think the sense of strike with a meaning to eliminate from consideration
is of British Naval usage, as in, to strike the colors is to cease
resistance, to contest no more, and this is relatively late, circa 1700.
Phil Innes
> However, it is possible that English and American usage
> differ sufficiently to make 'stricken', as used in the
> original quote, acceptable to many.
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