Okay, we're not done.

Linda 


 
Linda Comerford
317.786.6404
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www.comerfordconsulting.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Karl Hagen
Sent: Saturday, February 09, 2008 7:44 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: done


Theodore Bernstein is one who carps about it, in _The Careful Writer_
(1965).

Paul E. Doniger wrote:
> 
> 
> "If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well / It were done 
> qucikly" (/Macbeth/ 1.7.1-2). The first 'done' clearly means 'finished'.
> If it's good enough for Shakespeare, ... !
> 
>  
> 
> Also, there seems to be no prohibition regarding 'done' in Fowler's 
> /Modern English Usage/, which I believe is the usage bible (if there 
> is such a thing). I've never heard any complaints about this one before.
> 
>  
> 
> Paul D.
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Karl Hagen <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Saturday, February 9, 2008 2:43:06 PM
> Subject: Re: done
> 
> We might equally well ask where this word rage against "done" = 
> "finished" comes from, since it doesn't appear to be based on any 
> facts about actual English usage.
> 
> "Done" has been used as an adjective in this sense since the 14th 
> century (originally with "have", and since the 18th century with "be").
> It has been used by any number of canonical authors, including Dickens 
> and Twain.
> 
> The handful of usage books that claim it's a problem are simply 
> perverse and should be ignored. It's unquestionably standard.
> 
> Jane Saral wrote:
>> I know that this issue has been addressed before, but I was just at 
>> dinner with someone who grows livid hearing the word "done" used to 
>> mean "finished."  I have never found it particularly objectionable, 
>> though I probably would not use it in really formal circumstances. 
>> (Still, I
>> might...)  Anyway, where did the usage come from?  and when did it arise?
>> Jane Saral
>> Atlanta
>>
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