Comments | little_details: "By the morrow" Victorian usage?

ryntha_doghare in little_details

"By the morrow" Victorian usage?

Aug 04, 2011 23:31

This really is a Little Detail, but it's bugging me and I would love to know the answer.

Setting of story: 1880s Victorian London

So I'm writing a fanfic for a Victorian novel and I have one character saying the line: "I should be amazed if he has not dismissed my friendship by the morrow".The problem is I'm not sure if "to-morrow" would be more ( Read more... )

~languages: english: uk, 1880-1889, ~languages: english: historical, uk: history: victorian era

Comments 20

reconditarmonia August 4 2011, 23:03:32 UTC

I'd use "By to-morrow." Even without looking into the history of the terms at all, I'd want to err on the side of not sounding overly antiquated (unless that's the character's personality) - "to-morrow" was certainly in use in the Victorian period, but "the morrow" sounds old-fashioned.

charlycrash August 4 2011, 23:05:45 UTC

This may be totally wrong, but "by the morrow" would probably sound archaic in Victorian times.

If you read a Victorian novel you can see that, whilst it may sound a little stilted and formal by today's standards, generally usage of English isn't all that different.

For example, the opening of Dracula (1897 ( ... )

jayb111 August 4 2011, 23:20:42 UTC

I agree that 'by the morrow' is too archaic for the late 19th century. In fact, the whole sentence sounds excessively formal for speech, unless the character is known for speaking in that way.

fragrantwoods August 4 2011, 23:35:03 UTC

First time posting here...I did an "inside the book" search on Jane Eyre (1847) and there was no "tomorrow", every use was to-morrow.
Around the World in Eighty Days,(1872, in French, 1873, in English) same search, used tomorrow.

If there's a book you know was written exactly in your time period, the "search the book feature" on amazon for your terms might help to pin down usage in the 1880s.

veronamay August 4 2011, 23:39:40 UTC

I'm in the middle of the Sherlock Holmes canon at the moment, which stories were written starting in 1887. There's lots of "tomorrow" or "to-morrow", but no "on the morrow".

ryntha_doghare August 5 2011, 10:56:41 UTC

Incidentally, there isn't any difference in meaning between "to-morrow" and "tomorrow", is there?

veronamay August 5 2011, 20:52:06 UTC

Nope. Lots of words used to hyphenated like that; "good-bye" is another one that crops up a lot. Evolution of the written language and all that (one less keystroke for the typesetter/typist, maybe).

ryntha_doghare August 6 2011, 08:58:05 UTC

Right, just checking. Thanks.