The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #114361 Message #2439768
Posted By: GUEST,Don Firth (computer still in the shop)
14-Sep-08 - 12:55 AM
Thread Name: BS: When did 'forbid' become 'forfend'?
Subject: RE: BS: When did 'forbid' become 'forfend'?
Forf is after fird and before fiff.
Perfectly good word, actually. The richness of the English language allows shades of meanings that many languages with smaller vocabularies do not (English, around 600,000 words, Romance languages around 150,000 each), without sometimes having to get awfully vebose.
Heaven forfend that one should be forbidden the use of subtle distinctions. . . .
Don Firth