'Druther' in the singular

[halcombe]

Completely unknown to BrE, of course. But I like it, and use it as a
convenient description of a desire unconstrained by mundane realities;
especially one purposely formulated as such.

A little girl, asked by her parents what she wanted for Christmas,
might say a pony. If here parents are farmers on the prairie, that
might be a wish. If they all live in the projects in an a cramped
apartment on the 14th floor - then it's a druther.

But is this use correct in AmE? Webster [1] only has the word in the
plural: 1875; dialect : free choice : preference -- used especially in
the phrase if one had one's druthers.

Google makes its use as a noun in the singular (as opposed to another
way of writing 'I'd rather') pretty rare - only one clear instance in
the first hundred results, that I could see.

Not that I'll stop using it - but I'm just curious.

[1] http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary

[Richard R. Hershberger]

halc...@subdimension.com (halcombe) wrote in message news:<d7fa3848.03031...@posting.google.com>...

This expression I know is "Given my druthers...". I don't think I
have ever heard the version MW gives. This is, I believe, standard
informal American English. I have not heard it as you use it, but I
like it.

Richard R. Hershberger

[tomca...@yanospamhoo.com]

He had had much experience of physicians, and said "The only way to keep
your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and
do what you'd druther not." -Mark Twain

[Raymond S. Wise]

"Richard R. Hershberger" <rrh...@acme.com> wrote in message
news:82401463.03031...@posting.google.com...

I don't recall ever having come across "given my druthers..." but I figure I
must have, if it is sufficiently common that the AHD4 uses it--rather, the
version "Given their druthers..."-- in a cite for the word "druthers": See

http://www.bartleby.com/61/35/D0403500.html

I know it best from "If I had my druthers..." which is used in the examples
under the entry for "druthers" in the dictionary at Infoplease.com, at

http://www.infoplease.com/ipd/A0417266.html

and the Encarta, at

http://tinyurl.com/7mp2

--
Raymond S. Wise
Minneapolis, Minnesota USA

E-mail: mplsray @ yahoo . com

[sage]

<tomca...@yaNOSPAMhoo.com> wrote in message
news:b54nsd$d8u$1...@news1.radix.net...

>
> He had had much experience of physicians, and said "The only way to keep
> your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and
> do what you'd druther not." -Mark Twain

So, as I read it, he doubled his "woulds", i.e. (in translation) " ... you
would would rather not."

Cheers, Sage

[Raymond S. Wise]

"sage" <sa...@netcom.ca> wrote in message
news:CImda.2091$945....@tor-nn1.netcom.ca...

That depends upon whether "druther" is analyzable or not, that is, whether
it is obvious where the divisions into morphemes would be made. It seems to
me that in the example in question, the presence of the "'d" morpheme in
"you'd" rules out the possiblity that the "d" in "druther" is a morpheme
meaning the same thing.

The noun "druthers" is not analyzable into "d" + "ruther" + "s." That would
be a division of the word based upon etymology, but not upon current meaning
or grammar. I expect that it can be seen as divided into the morphemes
"druther" + "s," because it is treated as a plural word, and the "s" would
function as a grammatical morpheme, marking the word as plural, even if
there is no such thing as a *"druther."

I have noted before that Mark Twain was inconsistent in *The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn* in the word he had Jim use for "ask": Jim used both "ax"
("What's de use to ax dat question?") and "ast" ("Now I want to ast
you[...]"). The verb "druther" is another case of inconsistency: In
*Huckleberry Finn,* Twain has both "I'd druther been bit with a snake than
pap's whisky." and "I druther have [your word] than another man's
kiss-the-Bible." He had both "[He] said he'd druther not take a child away
from its father." and "He said he druther see the new moon over his left
shoulder as much as a thousand times than take up a snake-skin in his hand."
"I druther" has the same number of morphemes as "I'd rather." So does "I'd
druther," it seems to me, because "druther" here has become as unanalyzable
as "druthers."

(There is still a nagging question in my mind. Can "druther," the verb,
really be considered analyzable? Is it transparent to those who speak it
that the "d" is the same as the "d" in contractions such as "I'd" and
"he'd"? Or is it rather like "gonna" and "coulda" where, while an educated
speaker knows that these are versions of "going to" and "could have"--and
would use the longer version when trying to stress a point--a less educated
person would just take them to be unanalyzable words?)