What does "as is my wont" really mean?

[arkland]

The google search terms are all too common.

Is there a reference for the proper interpretation & American English
language usage of "as is my wont."

Note: I hate putting the period inside of quotes!

[Peter Duncanson (BrE)]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:18:41 +0000 (UTC), arkland <ark...@gmail.com>
wrote:

>The google search terms are all too common.
>
>Is there a reference for the proper interpretation & American English
>language usage of "as is my wont."
>

"as is my wont" means "as is my habit (or custom)".

http://www.yourdictionary.com/wont

>Note: I hate putting the period inside of quotes!

--
Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.english.usage)

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

Why do it then? No one is forcing you. Especially when what you want is
a question mark.

--
athel

[Anton Shepelev]

Peter Duncanson:

> "as is my wont" means "as is my habit (or cus-
> tom)".

Let me, if you will, ask another question in this
connection: How can 'wont' be used as a transitive
verb? -- for several dictionaries mention this
translation but unfortunately without providing cor-
responding examples.

I have asked this question elsewhere but was denied
a reply for the very obsoletness of this verb.

Thanks in advance,
Anton

[Bill McCray]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 19:30:46 +0100, Peter Duncanson (BrE) wrote:

> On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:18:41 +0000 (UTC), arkland <ark...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>The google search terms are all too common.
>>
>>Is there a reference for the proper interpretation & American English
>>language usage of "as is my wont."
>>
> "as is my wont" means "as is my habit (or custom)".
>
> http://www.yourdictionary.com/wont
>
>
>>Note: I hate putting the period inside of quotes!

The British standard is to put punctuation marks were they logically
belong, inside the quotation marks if it is part of the quote, outside if
not. Feel free to use that standard. I am one American who has adopted
that standard. I much prefer it to the American one. I made that choice
on the basis of logic before I found out that it that it is the British
standard. I doubt that most Americans would notice either way.

Bill in Kentucky

[Athel Cornish-Bowden]

On 2011-07-26 22:16:18 +0200, Anton Shepelev said:

> Peter Duncanson:
>
>> "as is my wont" means "as is my habit (or cus-
>> tom)".
>
> Let me, if you will, ask another question in this
> connection: How can 'wont' be used as a transitive
> verb?

As far as I know it can't.

> -- for several dictionaries mention this
> translation but unfortunately without providing cor-
> responding examples.

You don't cite an example either! Could you cite an example of a
dictionary that mentions this translation, and tell us _exactly_ what
it says.

>
> I have asked this question elsewhere but was denied
> a reply for the very obsoletness of this verb.
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Anton

--
athel

[Anton Shepelev]

Athel Cornish-Bowden:

> You don't cite an example either! Could you cite
> an example of a dictionary that mentions this
> translation, and tell us _exactly_ what it says.

OK. Number one is from The Free Online Dictionary,
which in turn says it has been taken from "The Amer-
ican Heritage Dictionary of the English Language,
Fourth Edition":

v.tr.: To make accustomed to.
v.intr.: To be in the habit of doing something.

And this one's from Merriam-Webster:

transitive verb
: accustom, habituate
intransitive verb
: to have the habit of doing something

Anton

[Peter Duncanson (BrE)]

On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:37:00 +0400, Anton Shepelev <anto...@gmail.com>
wrote:

And the OED:

wont, v.1

archaic
1.

a. trans. To make (a person, etc.) accustomed or used to (occas.
with); = accustom v. 1, use v. 20.

The earliest quotation is from c1440.

The most recent two are:

c1682 in Verney Mem. (1907) II. 312 When I have visited her and
a little wonted her to the place, I'll come home.

1916 Contemp. Rev. June 689 The various defence and relief
committees..have wonted people to the notion of organising the
community.

[Anton Shepelev]

Peter Duncanson:

> The most recent two are:
>

> 1682 in Verney Mem. (1907) II. 312 When I
> have visited her and a little wonted her to
> the place, I'll come home.
>
> 1916 Contemp. Rev. June 689 The various
> defence and relief committees..have wonted

> people to the notion of organising the commu-
> nity.
>

Thank you very much. And I was thinking about silly
sentences like "I wont riding a bicycle." :-)

Anton

[John Lawler]

The phrase "as is my wont" means that the
speaker would like you to believe they
do whatever activity the phrase is attached
to a description of pretty regularly.

"Wont" (rhymes with "punt") is used in a predicate adjective
construction
(He is wont to take offense at that) and in a possessible noun
construction
with the same meaning (It is his wont to take offense at that).

Generally either is considered a formal, even snooty, thing to say.
Proper usage depends as always on the social milieu.

Put the period wherever you want to
unless somebody pays you to do different.

-John Lawler
http://www.umich.edu/~jlawler
Think lobally, yack vocally.

[musika]

In news:cb0e8ffe-4d97-45c4...@u28g2000prm.googlegroups.com,
John Lawler <johnm...@gmail.com> typed:

> On Jul 26, 11:18 am, arkland <arkl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> The google search terms are all too common.
>>
>> Is there a reference for the proper interpretation & American English
>> language usage of "as is my wont."
>>
>> Note: I hate putting the period inside of quotes!
>
> The phrase "as is my wont" means that the
> speaker would like you to believe they
> do whatever activity the phrase is attached
> to a description of pretty regularly.
>
> "Wont" (rhymes with "punt")

Really? I have only ever heard "want" and "won't" pronunciations. M-W on the
web agrees.

> is used in a predicate adjective
> construction
> (He is wont to take offense at that) and in a possessible noun
> construction
> with the same meaning (It is his wont to take offense at that).
>
> Generally either is considered a formal, even snooty, thing to say.
> Proper usage depends as always on the social milieu.
>
> Put the period wherever you want to
> unless somebody pays you to do different.
>
> -John Lawler
> http://www.umich.edu/~jlawler
> Think lobally, yack vocally.

--
Ray
UK

[arkland]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:26:41 -0400, Bill McCray wrote:

> The British standard is to put punctuation marks were they logically
> belong, inside the quotation marks if it is part of the quote, outside
> if not.

I had no inkling of the British English standard.

That's what will be my wont from now on!

:)

[arkland]

On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:20:37 +0200, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:

> Why do it then? No one is forcing you. Especially when what you want is
> a question mark.

I struggle with the location of quoted periods only because placing
periods inside the quotes at the end of a sentence is considered proper
(American) English

NOTE: I had not known about the British English wont to place the period
where it 'logically' belongs.

However, in my angst over the location of the sentence-ending period, I
had wholly forgotten my quoted expression was at the end of a question!

So ... is 'this' location for the question mark proper American English?
* Is there a reference for the proper interpretation & American English
language usage of "as is my wont?"

Or, does American English demand this?
* Is there a reference for the proper interpretation & American English
language usage of "as is my wont"?

[CDB]

Interesting. I suppose it survives best in the almost adjectival
"wonted". Her wonted purposefulness (AHD) is the purposefulness to
which she has been habituated. (That's an awkward word, but
"accustomed" seemed ambiguous.)

[Bill McCray]

On Wed, 27 Jul 2011 08:09:15 +0000 (UTC), arkland wrote:

> On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 21:20:37 +0200, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
>
>> Why do it then? No one is forcing you. Especially when what you want is
>> a question mark.
>
> I struggle with the location of quoted periods only because placing
> periods inside the quotes at the end of a sentence is considered proper
> (American) English
>
> NOTE: I had not known about the British English wont to place the period
> where it 'logically' belongs.
>
> However, in my angst over the location of the sentence-ending period, I
> had wholly forgotten my quoted expression was at the end of a question!

LOL! I can understand that.

> So ... is 'this' location for the question mark proper American English?
> * Is there a reference for the proper interpretation & American English
> language usage of "as is my wont?"

> Or, does American English demand this?
> * Is there a reference for the proper interpretation & American English
> language usage of "as is my wont"?

The AmE standard is for periods and commas to go always inside the closing
quotation mark, while question marks and exclamation marks are placed where
they logically belong (an illogical standard, I think, but we're stuck with
it). Your second one is right for both AmE and BrE.

BTW, I don't think "wont" is used much, if at all, in the U.S. I'm not
aware of ever having heard it, and I've seen it only in aeu and similar
groups, so I assume that it is more common in BrE than here. I have just
checked my American Heritage Dictionary and it's there, so it must be used
here some. I expect that it would be unknown to most of us.

Bill in Kentucky

[Peter Duncanson (BrE)]

I use BrE and it is not my wont to use "wont".

[John Dean]

musika wrote:
> In
> news:cb0e8ffe-4d97-45c4...@u28g2000prm.googlegroups.com,
> John Lawler <johnm...@gmail.com> typed:
>> On Jul 26, 11:18 am, arkland <arkl...@gmail.com> wrote:
>>> The google search terms are all too common.
>>>
>>> Is there a reference for the proper interpretation & American
>>> English language usage of "as is my wont."
>>>
>>> Note: I hate putting the period inside of quotes!
>>
>> The phrase "as is my wont" means that the
>> speaker would like you to believe they
>> do whatever activity the phrase is attached
>> to a description of pretty regularly.
>>
>> "Wont" (rhymes with "punt")
>
> Really? I have only ever heard "want" and "won't" pronunciations.

Me too. I've always used 'won't' but 'want' also sounds OK.

> M-W on the web agrees.
>

As does OED

--
John Dean
Oxford

[graham]

"Peter Duncanson (BrE)" <ma...@peterduncanson.net> wrote in message
news:jr1u271r0i8020201...@4ax.com...

> On Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:18:41 +0000 (UTC), arkland <ark...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>>The google search terms are all too common.
>>
>>Is there a reference for the proper interpretation & American English
>>language usage of "as is my wont."
>>
> "as is my wont" means "as is my habit (or custom)".
>
> http://www.yourdictionary.com/wont
>
>
>>Note: I hate putting the period inside of quotes!
>

Jolly good show, old boy!

[peterwin...@gmail.com]

Note: I hate putting the period inside of quotes!

Translation into British English:

"I hate putting the full stop inside the quotation marks".

[CRNG]

On Sat, 16 Feb 2013 01:37:04 -0800 (PST), peterwin...@gmail.com
wrote in <d8fd4ce6-8a12-4ec2...@googlegroups.com> Re
Re: What does "as is my wont" really mean?:

>Note: I hate putting the period inside of quotes!
>
>Translation into British English:
>
>"I hate putting the full stop inside the quotation marks".

"Me too".

[dades...@gmail.com]

What a pleasant little read this exchange has been.

Thank you all for the lack of degeneration that the internet is often so wont to adopt.

[Don Phillipson]

<dades...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:c1c2f6aa-43dd-42cc...@googlegroups.com...

> What a pleasant little read this exchange has been.
>
> Thank you all for the lack of degeneration that the internet is often so
> wont to adopt.

To answer your question, ascribing a wont to an impersonal entity is
a figure of speech, i.e. its meaning is figurative, not intended to be
literal.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

[Whiskers]

You're replying to an article posted on 26 Jul 2011 - nearly two years ago.
I don't think that's usually 'good practice'; ancient articles may still
appear in usenet archives, such as Google's, but are probably not easily
accessible to people using normal newsgroup software. Usenet is
essentially ephemeral.

Previous versions of Google's web forum interface prevented responses to
articles more than a few weeks old, but its latest manifestation apparently
lacks that restraint.

I'm sure I've seen some such term as "necroposting" used to describe such
actions; is that the accepted term, or can anyone suggest a better one?

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

[Odysseus]

In article <slrnkpesos.2...@ID-107770.user.individual.net>,

Whiskers <catwh...@operamail.com> wrote:

> On 2013-05-18, dades...@gmail.com <dades...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > What a pleasant little read this exchange has been.
> >
> > Thank you all for the lack of degeneration that the internet is often so
> > wont to adopt.
>
> You're replying to an article posted on 26 Jul 2011 - nearly two years ago.
> I don't think that's usually 'good practice'; ancient articles may still
> appear in usenet archives, such as Google's, but are probably not easily
> accessible to people using normal newsgroup software. Usenet is
> essentially ephemeral.

I agree with most of that, but want to note my impression that
news-server retention of text groups is increasing: Eternal September's
is now a year or more for lower-traffic groups like this one (for which
it goes back to May 1, 2012), and Teranews not much less (July 10).
However, for high-traffic groups like AUE the retention is still not
much more than a month. (They might actually be basing it on message
counts rather than age.)

--
Odysseus

[ghf...@gmail.com]

It always goes inside the quotes.

[ghf...@gmail.com]

Wont is a noun normally, but sometimes adjective. Perhaps it was verb historically.

[Pavel314]

wonted (adj.) Look up wonted at Dictionary.com"accustomed, usual," c.1400, past participle adjective from wont. An unconscious double past participle.wont (adj.) Look up wont at Dictionary.com"accustomed," Old English wunod, past participle of wunian "to dwell, be accustomed," from Proto-Germanic *wun- "to be content, to rejoice" (cf. Old Saxon wunon, Old Frisian wonia "to dwell, remain, be used to," Old High German wonen, German wohnen "to dwell;" related to Old English winnan, gewinnan "to win" (see win) and to wean. The noun meaning "habitual usage, custom" is attested from c.1300.


From http://www.etymonline.com/

[Bill McCray]

American English usually puts periods and commas inside the quotation
marks and other punctuation marks inside or outside depending upon where
they logically belong.

British English usually puts all of those marks where they logically
belong, inside if they are parts of the quotation, outside if not.

I am a fairly logical American and was using the British system before I
knew that they did that. I have never had an American mention that I
had put a period or comma in the wrong place.

Bill in Kentucky

[John Varela]

No it doesn't.

--
John Varela

[Peter Duncanson [BrE]]

On Fri, 31 Jan 2014 11:11:26 -0800 (PST), Pavel314 <pin...@jhmi.edu>
wrote:

And the OED has this as the first (archaic) sense of the verb:

1.
a. trans. To make (a person, etc.) accustomed or used to (occas.
with); = accustom v. 1, use v. 20.

The etymology given for the verb is:

< wont adj. or back-formation < wonted adj.

It has 9 examples of the use of the transitive verb with the earliest
dated c1440. Most of them are not in modern English and therefore use
strange spelling. Here is one of the more comprehensible ones:

1600 R. Surflet tr. C. Estienne & J. Liébault Maison Rustique vii.
xlvii. 882 And so offring her such meat as is most easie, you
shall woont her to eate of the said hart:

and the most recent:

1916 Contemp. Rev. June 689 The various defence and relief
committees..have wonted people to the notion of organising the
community.

[alunfw...@yahoo.co.uk]

Full stop

[Steve Hayes]

On Sat, 13 Sep 2014 02:41:26 -0700 (PDT), alunfw...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

>Full stop

Semi-colon.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

[Peter Young]

On 13 Sep 2014 Steve Hayes <haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote:

> On Sat, 13 Sep 2014 02:41:26 -0700 (PDT), alunfw...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

>>Full stop

> Semi-colon.

You wont get told unless you out the question in the message, nut just
in the subject line.

Peter,.

--
Peter Young, (BrE, RP), Consultant Anaesthetist, 1975-2004.
(US equivalent: Certified Anesthesiologist)
Cheltenham and Gloucester, UK. Now happily retired.
http://pnyoung.orpheusweb.co.uk

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

In article <59ca73465...@pnyoung.ormail.co.uk>, Peter Young

<pny...@ormail.co.uk> writes:

> You wont get told unless you out the question in the message, nut just
> in the subject line.

Not necessarily.

It means: as I am accustomed to do.

Probably related to German "gewohnt", "accustomed", and "gew�hnen an",
"to become accustomed to".

[Tony Cooper]

On Sat, 13 Sep 2014 11:21:04 +0100, Peter Young <pny...@ormail.co.uk>
wrote:

>On 13 Sep 2014 Steve Hayes <haye...@telkomsa.net> wrote:
>
>> On Sat, 13 Sep 2014 02:41:26 -0700 (PDT), alunfw...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:
>
>>>Full stop
>
>> Semi-colon.
>
>You wont get told unless you out the question in the message, nut just
>in the subject line.
>

There's a kernel of truth to that.

Sorry for a corny rejoinder, there.
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando FL

[john.d...@gmail.com]

On Tuesday, 26 July 2011 14:18:41 UTC-4, arkland wrote:
> The google search terms are all too common.
>
> Is there a reference for the proper interpretation & American English
> language usage of "as is my wont."
>
> Note: I hate putting the period inside of quotes!

In that case, you don't need to put a period inside the quotation marks. You only need to inset a period when directly quoting a written passage in which a period is found. Here are two examples of each case: "...when we have shuffled off this mortal, must give is pause.", and; (your question properly written), [i]s there a reference for the proper interpretation & American English language usage of "as is my wont"? BTW, you also omitted the question mark. At any rate, do you see what I mean?

[Whiskers]

I wouldn't bank on it, five years after the question was posted.

[ghos...@gmail.com]

On Wednesday, 27 July 2011 03:01:27 UTC+1, John Lawler wrote:

> On Jul 26, 11:18 am, arkland <arkl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > The google search terms are all too common.
> >
> > Is there a reference for the proper interpretation & American English
> > language usage of "as is my wont."
> >
> > Note: I hate putting the period inside of quotes!
>

> The phrase "as is my wont" means that the
> speaker would like you to believe they
> do whatever activity the phrase is attached
> to a description of pretty regularly.
>

> "Wont" (rhymes with "punt") is used in a predicate adjective
> construction
> (He is wont to take offense at that) and in a possessible noun
> construction
> with the same meaning (It is his wont to take offense at that).
>
> Generally either is considered a formal, even snooty, thing to say.
> Proper usage depends as always on the social milieu.
>
> Put the period wherever you want to
> unless somebody pays you to do different.
>
> -John Lawler
> http://www.umich.edu/~jlawler
> Think lobally, yack vocally.

Except only heathens pronounce it wunt.