For questions about old words and phrases which are usually no longer used in spoken or written language. They are still found sometimes in English which is supposed to sound old-fashioned. This includes both archaic vocabulary (damsel and yon) and archaic grammar (Be not afraid!).
Questions tagged [archaic-language]
90 questions
5
votes
2 answers
Thee Thou Thine Thy
Do all native speakers know the words
Thee Thou Thine Thy ?
And all other forms of creating the sentences in the archaic manner?
I mean all these phrases and grammar aren't used by anyone now but known by every person or aren't known,…
Michael Azarenko
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votes
2 answers
When once you have tasted flight
When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and
there you will always long to return. (Leonardo da Vinci)
Should "When" not be there, because "once" itself will be…
Tim
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3
votes
1 answer
Is the clause "it's past doubt" archaic?
From another version of this book I know the clause in boldface can be reworded as "It's certain". I searched the phase "past doubt" in Google but few related results were returned. So I wonder if this usage is a very old-fashioned.
In a word,…
wang zhihao
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vote
1 answer
Hath or has? Which one is better to use
Here I am aware of it, but I am not getting it.
The sea hath/has many thousand sands.
Hath and has both seem to be same meaning.
Which one is better to use?
Shall I use hath or has?
Shaddy
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vote
1 answer
Can native English people comprehend "A Tale of Two Cities" without much effort?
I am not a native English speaker. Recently I tried to read "A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens. I gave up soon because I was not able to comprehend that book! I even tried to read the summary of the individual chapters and then read the book.…
Soumee
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vote
1 answer
Was there a specific way to ask the time in the era of the Grandfather Clock , the late 1900's
My husband says he remembers hearing the phrase "I heard the time drop" in relation to a Grandfather Clock so this would have been used some time around the end of the 1900's I think.
Please help me if you can tell me the way the time was asked in…
user64765
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0
votes
1 answer
Is this obsolete English?
I came across this sentence:
He enforced the maintaining of all bona-fide transactions in clergy property, but advocated the revision of such contracts as might be proved fraudulent, and urged a concordat proposing that the state provide for the…
Quique
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0
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2 answers
-eth suffix for verbial nouns
Can anyone explain to me if the usage of the following two words is correct in the stanzas of an Iron Maiden song:
Redeem my salve of winning ways
Remember all the darkest days
Of that
I know will see me tread
Walketh upon the field of the dead
The…
Michael Munta
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0
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2 answers
Are these expressions still relevant?
Are the following expressions in bold still relevant?
"made good spare of"
But then againe ther arose Strong and Great Windes from the South, with a Point East ; which carried us up, (for all that we could doe) towards the North : By which time…
user2492
0
votes
0 answers
What were modal verbs in third person singular in archaic English?
I know that modal verbs back in time were always the same (not changeable) with some exeptions - e.g.:
thou shalt, thou hast, thou dost, thou canst. Hence my question is: how to transform modal verbs in third person singular? How to say for example:…
WillS
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0
votes
1 answer
What does "afeard" mean?
Too much afeard to die
Would you tell me what this archaic phrase means?
nima
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