The other day I came across a phrase which used abide to something in the sense of ‘sticking to’ and it made me wonder how common that structure is. The answer is, not very. To put that in perspective, in a 2018 corpus of many different varieties of English there are 369 examples of this kind:
Media play a huge role in enlightening the public as to how to respect the law and abide to it.
In contrast, there are … wait for it … 27,438 examples of the abide by structure:
In an interview with Italian TV, Syrian President Bashar Assad said he will abide by a U.N. resolution to dismantle his country’s chemical weapons.
A tiny proportion, just over one per cent, then, of abide to. So why write about it? For two reasons. First because of that structure and second because abide is an intriguing verb (for a lexicographer, at any rate) in its own right, which I’ll come on to in another blog.
It’s wrong, but…
Any editor would no doubt replace abide to with abide by. It simply has to be considered ‘wrong’ or anomalous. The phrasal verb is abide by, and that is all there is to it. But abide to makes a lot of sense. First, the preposition to is a basic way of expressing a relationship between two actors, entities or states: I gave it to Tom; he was moved to tears; they fixed it to the wall. Moreover, abide to makes a lot of sense if you group it with its synonyms: adhere to, conform to, keep to, stick to, consent to, pay attention to, pay heed to, agree to. In contrast, the only (phrasal) verb of similar meaning that uses by is go by, meaning ‘use as a basis for judgement or action’, as in If they prove that I was wrong, then I’ll go by what they say. If you were learning English, abide to could easily seem to fit into a pattern and abide by would be an eccentric prepositional idiom that has to be learnt by heart. The Oxford corpus I use contains many varieties of English. Abide to occurs with greater than expected frequency in South African English, Middle Eastern English and East Asian English. This makes me wonder if the authors of the pieces in question are speakers of English as a second (third, etc.) language. The pattern occurs with much less than expected frequency in the UK, U.S, Australia, etc., in other words, where English is the main language. One motor of language change is, arguably, the trend towards regularisation and the imposition of a more extensive pattern on a less extensive one. That explains, for example, the use of ?by foot on the model of by with other modes of transport. Or the change of holpen as the strong past participle of help to helped (see below). Who knows but that in a hundred years’ time we will all be saying abide to? As a footnote, it’s worth pointing out how arbitrary the choice of preposition can be. Abide historically has taken at and upon: And telleth him, in such degre Upon my word ye wole abide To lif or deth. Gower Confessio Amantis, a1393 Thai sal stand and abide at the ordinance. in J. B. Paul Registrum Magni Sigilli Scotorum (1882) II. 68/2, 1447
Luke 1, 46–55, ‘The Song of Mary’ and the wonderful line ‘He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.’ See verse 54 for holpen. 46 And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, 47 And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. 48 For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. 49 For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. 51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52 He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. 53 He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. 54 He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy; 55 As he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever.

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5 Comments

  1. Loved this one!

    Have you done one yet on the newly ubiquitous “so”, which has become the obligatory introductory adverb to any reply to any type of question? It’s got so prevalent that I have almost stopped raging at it (you know the thing: “what was wrong with ‘well’ as a place-marker to mean ‘I’m just about to tell you the answer’ or to soften any seeming over-directness of the answer). But ‘so’ and ‘well’ seem to mean something slightly different in this context – do you feel that? I’m sure you must have treated this worthy subject and I must have missed it.

    By the way, I don’t entirely agree with you about ‘shield’ being ergative, thus explaining it’s lack of an object in the current sense. Well – ok then, it’s become ergative, I suppose. After all, all language change happens as a result of an aberrant usage becoming the norm. But shielding doesn’t yet work for me!!

    Oh such a joy to talk trivia about language with someone who loves it too!

    Lots of love L.

    PS I do hope you are both well and still sane. Sanity is slightly beginning to slip away here: no “holiday”, no France, no hugs with friends … Branching out next week and actually visiting a friend in her house!! Will take my own mug though – and mask. She is one of the erstwhile self-shielders. (Had to get that in somehow – it has the virtue of truth too!)

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    Reply

  2. Hello dear Jeremy Hope you are doing well

    I really like abide to and abide by

    But to be honest, this is the first time ever I know that the strong past participle of the verb Help is holpen

    Thanks for such an enlightenment

    Yours Hakim / Libya

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    On Thu, Aug 27, 2020, 3:31 PM Jeremy Butterfield Editorial wrote:

    > Jeremy Butterfield posted: ” The other day I came across a phrase which > used abide to something in the sense of ‘sticking to’ and it made me wonder > how common that structure is. The answer is, not very. To put that in > perspective, in a 2018 corpus of many different var” >

    Reply

    1. ‘Abide with’ as in the hymn lines

      Abide with me! fast falls the eventide,
      The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide
      When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
      Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!

      is a completely different meaning of ‘abide’, namely ‘to stay’. Moreover, it is not a phrasal verb like ‘abide by’ but simply a use of ‘abide’ coupled with a proposition. See the intransitive meanings in the Merriam-Webster definition https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abide?utm_campaign=sd&utm_medium=serp&utm_source=jsonld

      I can’t conceive what ‘abide from’ could mean.

      Reply

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