16

I'm curious about a certain sentence construct that I've seen in different contexts. I'm talking about sentences in the following style:

A * doesn't a * make.

(* being a wildcard). For example:

A good camera doesn't a good photographer make.

A google search for that specific sentence construct yields several results. However, the placement of the verb at the end of the sentence seems to be a grammatical error to me.

Is this construct grammatically correct? Is it archaic? Is it derived from a famous quote? Or is it just plain wrong?

MoritzLost
  • 411
  • 1
  • 4
  • 17

2 Answers2

19

It is grammatically correct. The most common usage is probably the proverb, "one swallow does not a summer make".

Here and here are some explanations of this word order. In short, it's an hyperbaton used to emphasize "make", and it is considered archaic (or poetic).

Community
  • 1
  • 1
    +1, but I don't see how it can be considered archaic if the construction is still in use today. – Alan Carmack May 16 '16 at 15:37
  • 11
    @AlanCarmack, afaik, if it won't be in use today, it would be considered obsolete, not archaic. Archaisms just sound old-fashioned outside of specific context –  May 16 '16 at 15:48
  • 5
    @AlanCarmack: A single, idiomatic use does not a non-archaic word make. – Lightness Races in Orbit May 16 '16 at 15:59
  • 3
    @AlanCarmack The construction is valid, but no one uses it these days except in this context, so it sounds very archaic. – Kevin May 16 '16 at 16:10
  • Hello! People the Google search results included in the question shows multiple contemporary uses of this construction....... – Alan Carmack May 16 '16 at 16:36
  • Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 18th Edition (2012), page 78:5, attributes "One swallow does not make a summer" to Aristotle in Nicomachean Ethics I, 7. – Mark Hubbard May 16 '16 at 17:22
  • 5
    @AlanCarmack If methinks is not archaic (based on its frequency of usage on Twitter), you may wish to inform Merriam-Webster of their error. :) Whether a word is archaic depends in part on whether it registers tonally as archaic. A word being archaic doesn't mean that it's not used or understood (as mentioned above, that's obsolete). – apsillers May 16 '16 at 17:36
  • Related proverb: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barba_non_facit_philosophum “A beard does not constitute a philosopher,” attributed to "the Athenian aristocrat, ex-Roman consul and man of letters Herodes Atticus." – Mark Hubbard May 16 '16 at 17:37
  • Aristotle wrote in Greek, which (afaik) had/has a more flexible word order than English. Translators into English had/have the choice of retaining the original word order or rearranging it to the English of their time, which is why 'does not a summer make' and 'does not make a summer' are both found. As well as being poetic, SOV can sound (mock-)philosophical. (I found the original quotation in Greek, but Google Translate couldn't cope with Attic Greek and returned gibberish.) (BTW, Google Ngrams shows 'does not make a summer' is far more common.) – Sydney May 16 '16 at 22:25
  • 1
    The swallow/summer proverb may be the oldest and most well known use of this sentence construction, but I don't think it is archaic because it is still used quite often for non swallow/summer purposes. (It's not something everybody says, of course, but I know a few people who do say it. Including me.) – nnnnnn May 17 '16 at 01:17
4

The sentence that jumps into my mind is

One swallow does not a summer make.

You can read more about the sentence, including historical uses at the Wikitionary Page for it. The alternative sentence with ... does not make a summer sounds lackluster in comparison.

So, no it's not ungrammatical or outdated, and your latest Google search brings up several examples.

Alan Carmack
  • 11,991
  • 2
  • 23
  • 52