--for those who speak English as their second language or who just want to improve their writing
(Text-only version of Quirks of English)
Last month's article on the shibboleths in English dealt with correctly using less, fewer, and lesser. To review, shibboleths comes from the Hebrew shibbOleth, stream, from the use of this word in Judges 12:6 as a test to distinguish Gileadites from Ephraimites, who pronounced it sibbOleth. The second meaning of shibboleth given in Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) is "a use of language regarded as distinctive of a particular group" and refers to correct usage as dictated by formal writing. Appropriate word choice not only helps you communicate exactly what you mean but also indicates your mastery of the language; hence, knowing the niceties is knowing the shibboleths. This month, we consider four more words that are frequently misused.
The verb let means to permit or to allow, whereas the verb leave means to go away from, to permit to remain undisturbed, or to bequeath (as in an inheritance).
If you let me alone to finish my assignment, I will be able to
leave on time.
Let sleeping dogs lie.
"Leave me alone" is an idiom in spoken English meaning "don't disturb or interfere with me." In formal writing, many grammarians believe that "leave me alone" should be reserved for "go away from me so that I will be by myself" and that "let me be" should be used for "don't disturb me."
Many of the other idioms that use leave should be considered slang and never used for formal writing:
To have been grammatically correct, the sitcom Leave It To Beaver should have been called "Let Beaver Take Care of It" (unless this was a plea for people to bequeath money to the Beaver).
Back in the 1500's and 1600's, let was also used to mean "to lend money at interest." Since many of us are working on, dreading, or procrastinating in filing our taxes, we will discuss some other financial words.
The noun loan refers to something borrowed temporarily or to money lent at interest. Lend is a verb and describes the action of giving someone temporary use of money or property on the condition that it be repaid or returned (often with interest).
Many banks agreed to lend students money for college but were unaware of what the high default rate of student loans would be.
Shakespeare illustrates this in Hamlet, act 1:
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be,
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry."
According to the New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage and the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, loan is widely accepted in the United States as a verb meaning "to lend money," but many people still squirm when they hear it used that way. British critics have long held that the usage is a crude Americanism. Here's where it gets a bit confusing. In Olde English, the various forms of loan and lend had many spellings, some very similar to each other:
lend--laene, laenan, lenen, ilend, len, lene, lende, lenn, lent, lente, leene, leane, lendid
loan--lanst, lanen, lonyng, loned, lane, leane, lone, lon, loone, lan, londe, layne, lonne, lowne, loane
Some of the dispute came from various interpretations of the earliest citations of these words (A.D. 1000 to 1500) and from claims that "ae" was sometimes miswritten as "a" instead of "e." In the sense of lending money, the verb loan was in use in Britain when English settlers came to America. Its use died out completely in Britain but continued in the United States. Later its use was denounced by British visitors to the U.S.A. and by educated New Englanders.
All the sources we checked, however, agree that for figurative loans--to give assistance or support to, to devote to the effort of, or to adapt or apply oneself to--the verb lend should always be used.
Could you lend a hand here?
Donuts can lend an informal, friendly atmosphere to a meeting.
Also, many compound and derivative words use only the lend form:
lender
lending
moneylender
lend-lease agreement
By the way, although it is pronounced lean, the word meaning "the right to hold an interest in someone else's property as security for a loan (until it is paid off)" is spelled lien.
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Last updated: 1/20/2009