One of my Science teachers in School once said "both of you three, report to the Principal's office" while asking three naughty classmates to meet him at the Principal's office.
Of course, he had the class and the culprits in splits and he just did not understand why.
Now the word "both' is derived from 'bathir', a Norse word, which refers to an inclusion of at most 2 nouns and cannot refer to more than 2 or so we thought!
We cannot use 'both' for more than 2 nouns, but Samuel Taylor Coleridge has in fact used 'both' to refer to three things in his famous poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
In all probability, that was poetic license, but here is the line in which he used it in Stanza 19
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
Both means each of the two parts are wholly included in the reference.
Of course, he had the class and the culprits in splits and he just did not understand why.
Now the word "both' is derived from 'bathir', a Norse word, which refers to an inclusion of at most 2 nouns and cannot refer to more than 2 or so we thought!
We cannot use 'both' for more than 2 nouns, but Samuel Taylor Coleridge has in fact used 'both' to refer to three things in his famous poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner".
In all probability, that was poetic license, but here is the line in which he used it in Stanza 19
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.
Both means each of the two parts are wholly included in the reference.
No comments:
Post a Comment