Thomas Tompion
Member Emeritus
English - England
I'm surprised that this hasn't yet reared its no doubt disagreeable-looking head.
Keen students of the language listening to the radio will have been inwardly sneering, perhaps, at the growing habit of some people to say rearing to go, as opposed to what I have long regarded as the correct raring to go.
That underused resource, the WR dictionary, gives raring as an adjective and leaves it at that, but I've been wondering about this verb to rare and what it means.
I found a dictionary this morning which tells me that to rare is an English dialect form of to rear and dates from as recently as 1909. This suggests that rearing to go is as, if not more, correct than raring to go. I have an image of a horse rearing on its hind legs to get a spring into its step, almost performing the action which the French describe as se reculer pour mieux sauter. So I stuffed that in my pedant's pipe and am smoking it.
What do members say? Are you raring to go, or rearing to go?
Keen students of the language listening to the radio will have been inwardly sneering, perhaps, at the growing habit of some people to say rearing to go, as opposed to what I have long regarded as the correct raring to go.
That underused resource, the WR dictionary, gives raring as an adjective and leaves it at that, but I've been wondering about this verb to rare and what it means.
I found a dictionary this morning which tells me that to rare is an English dialect form of to rear and dates from as recently as 1909. This suggests that rearing to go is as, if not more, correct than raring to go. I have an image of a horse rearing on its hind legs to get a spring into its step, almost performing the action which the French describe as se reculer pour mieux sauter. So I stuffed that in my pedant's pipe and am smoking it.
What do members say? Are you raring to go, or rearing to go?
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