海角大神

How do you really feel about the little word get?

Isn鈥檛 it too useful to do without? That would be my take. But in a recent posting in the blog, editor Erin Brenner noted that get figured prominently in the 鈥減et peeves鈥� discussion in her recent Copyediting II course. (It sounds like a regular feature of the course. I鈥檓 not sure what that says about editors.)聽

One student told of a former manager who had such a strong feeling against get 鈥� and wouldn鈥檛 use it himself 鈥� that her reflex now is always to 鈥渜uery鈥� it, as editors say: to pester, er, ask the author to provide another word. Another student, forbidden to use get in his writing in high school, likewise internalized the prohibition: 鈥淚鈥檓 inclined to agree that there鈥檚 usually a better word,鈥� he told Ms. Brenner.

She responds: 鈥淚f there鈥檚 a better word, we鈥檙e not using it often enough.鈥� Get goes back to circa AD 1200 in print, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It would have been in use in speech even earlier, I would add. The American Heritage Dictionary records 鈥�21 current senses of get, many with subsenses; 20 phrasal verbs containing get, also with many subsenses; and another 20 idioms, again with many subsenses,鈥� Brenner goes on to relate.

Yes, you can generally find a more highfalutin (a higher-falutin?) word for get if you reach. But why reach when a perfectly good word is right before you on the worktable?

The trick with get is that some of its usages are perfectly suitable for 鈥渟tandard鈥� English and some are more informal. It takes a careful wordsmith to note the difference.

鈥淎rise, get thee to Zarephath,鈥� the Bible records the Lord saying unto Elijah the Tishbite (I Kings 17:9).

Compare that concrete directive usage (a term I鈥檝e just made up) with the very informal 鈥淕et outta here,鈥� as a response to an unbelievable statement: 鈥淵our kid got into Harvard? Get outta here!鈥�

Similarly, it鈥檚 hard to imagine the successful (and much riffed-upon) 鈥�?鈥� ad campaign having quite the same punch had the tag line been 鈥淒o you have milk?鈥� 鈥� as the pet-peevish types would perhaps have preferred.聽

Get is one of those verbs, along with take, set, come, go, and a number of others, much used, in many senses, that have a special place in the language. It may be precisely their versatility and their potential range in tone that makes them so foundational.

They鈥檙e like the original part of a much-added-onto stately house, with its Norman French wing, dating back to the 11th century; its Neo-Latin scientific wing, begun during the Renaissance and still being added to; and the slang summerhouse, out in the garden. However fascinating the additions, the original is still the heart of the house.

And some of those original meanings have proved remarkably durable. A talk-show booker may refer to a prize guest for an interview as 鈥渁 real get,鈥� for instance. The reminds us that get, as a noun meaning booty or prize, goes back to the 14th century.

When the biblical book of Proverbs urges, 鈥渨ith all thy getting get understanding鈥� (4:7), we see an awareness of 鈥渃onspicuous consumption鈥� centuries before came onto the scene.

If the meanings that some of those older words convey go back centuries, it may be because the human nature they refer to goes back even further.