Did oyu ever wonder...

Nov 09, 2007 01:12

Do you ever wonder what's up with the word 'won't'?

I do: what's up with that?

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Comments 6

hazy_crazy November 9 2007, 06:56:45 UTC
You know what, I've never thought about it until now. I'm wondering what two words it's abbreviating, now LOL!

I won't do it.

I suppose it's short for "will not". I mean, you're not gonna write "win't" or "willn't" LMAO.

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boggie November 9 2007, 07:11:18 UTC
I knew it was "will not", but I mean..."won't" just seems weird to me.

"willin't" I could probably handle...

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ohsnow November 9 2007, 13:42:18 UTC
LOLOL!
I cannot tell you how many times TJ and I have come back to that discussion. We seriously can't figure out why it's spelled "won't" when it stands for "will not." haha
Some fancy, old grammar dude way back when must have thought it looked or sounded right, or whatever. hehe :P

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lady_rinehart June 22 2008, 10:47:07 UTC
I was randomly checking out journals of people related to my communities and saw this and just had to answer. Sorry for the randomness (especially since the actual entry is so old).

The word "won't" comes from the first person present idicative of "I woll," which was standard around the 16th century (but was actually still used up until the 19th century by certain countries that speak English). The second and third persons were (and still are, of course) "he/she will." So, "won't" was originally the contaction for "woll not," which turned into "wonnot." In the late 16th century to early 17th century, the words "wonnot" and "won't" became common for all persons and "will" started being used as the first person indicative.

Kay, history lesson over.

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boggie June 22 2008, 17:15:13 UTC
well heck! that makes a lot of sense :D Thanks for the info, lady!

Hee. I'm actually really glad you commented, I see you posting all the time at comicunity and love most of the titles you share. I wondered if perhaps you might want to be friends?

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lady_rinehart June 24 2008, 00:17:06 UTC
Sure, though the journal I'm using right now is a writing journal that only has like 2 things visible to anyone. Friend away though! Also, there's a link to my real journal, which also hasn't been updated in a little while, but much more useful.

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