What language is this? [S. Worthen

It's not English English, and I doubt it's legalese. My suspicion would be that it's gibberish.

It's an English word now, and it's pronounced fort. I think it's from French (which wouldn't pronounce the final e without an accent mark), but I speak without access to a dictionary.

[link] [parent] [reply]

A missing 'with details' before the 'of'?

[link] [reply]

Typo or cut and paste error surely?

[link] [reply]

Maybe, but there are an awful lot of other hits for the phrase (180,000), even eliminating a lot of the hits on the grounds of omitted punctuation in search making it comprehensible.

[link] [parent] [reply]

When I google it in quote marks the only google hit is your livejournal.

[link] [parent] [reply]

That was fast indexing. When I Google it in quote marks, I get the 180,000.

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=%22provide+us+of%22&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

[link] [parent] [reply]

Ah -- see your point. But many of those are legitimate or just sloppy English

Reasonable english uses from the first page:
"...information you'd like to provide us. Of course we..."
"Do you have photos which you can provide us of this property"
"...the email address you may be asked to provide us, of any material change..."

But you are right, it does seem to be a common phrase. Take a look at
http://keithbriggs.info/spellometer.html

"risk adverse" gets 435,000 hits -- admittedly the first one saying "it's risk averse you fools".

[link] [parent] [reply]

I figured I had to eliminate at least half of the results on the grounds of punctuation.

targaff (below) finds only 242 hits when "provide us of course" is eliminated from the results.

I can add another 900+ by using other accusative pronouns.

Edited Date: 2008-03-07 06:05 pm (UTC)

[link] [parent] [reply]

You can combine words to make phrases and by enclosing a phrase in quote marks, Google will only look for pages that includes the phrase rather than the words that make up the phrase, so searching for "omg lyk" site:livejournal.

[link] [parent] [reply]

Yes -- that is what I meant by "in quotes".

Is this the most delayed comment reply ever? :-)

[link] [parent] [reply]

It's from this calendar year at least!

[link] [parent] [reply]

Oh how weird -- they seem to be little spam bots -- the last few commenters I mean. (LJs NSFW by the way).

How weird.

[link] [parent] [reply]

I think it's just a confusion between 'please advise us of...' and 'please provide us with...' Either the author just didn't really know which they wanted in the first place, or they tried at some point to re-edit the sentence from one to the other, and didn't manage to make all the necessary changes.

[link] [reply]

That's a logical explanation, especially for why it seems to happen so frequently. It does seem to be a fairly frequently used phrase, based on initial Google results (even ignoring all of the "provide us. Of..." instances cluttering up the results).

[link] [parent] [reply]

that was my guess too.

[link] [parent] [reply]

I say typo.

[link] [reply]

I love the OED - it has "provide...of" as something even better than typo - it has it as Obsolete.

10. trans. To supply (a person, animal, place, etc.) with something. Freq. in pass.

a. With of. Obs.

c1485 (1456) G. HAY Bk. Knychthede (1914) 102 And se that thou ger thy providouris..be ay..providit of cornis and othir provisiouns nedefull. 1547 A. BORDE Introd. Knowl. (1870) xiv. 160 Howbeit the good townes be prouyded of vitels. 1556 tr. J. de Flores Histoire de Aurelio & Isabelle sig. P8, Prouyde you of trew contricion and patience. 1577 B. GOOGE tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husb. f. 129, You must prouide them of warme pastures for the winter, and in sommer, very coole. 1615 W. LAWSON New Orchard & Garden (1668) III. i. 1 Whosoever desireth..to have a pleasant and profitable Orchard, must provide himself of a fruiterer..Skilful in that faculty. 1657 W. RAND tr. P. Gassendi Mirrour of Nobility I. 172 Viassius..providing him of a ship, sent him away. 1671 J. CARYLL Sir Salomon V. 84 I'm already provided of a wiser Governor then your Worship. 1723 E. CHAMBERS tr. S. Le Clerc Treat. Archit. I. 142 When an Architect is not provided of an able Painter fit to manage a Work of this kind. 1729 J. MORGAN Compl. Hist. Algiers II. iv. 260 Provided of all requisite Entertainment for at least a Twelvemonth. 1819 SCOTT Legend of Montrose p. xv. in Waverley Novels XV., Being provided of more [boots] of the same kind, I made myselfe reddie, and rode to the head-quarters.

[link] [parent] [reply]

Oooh... didn't know that. Thanks.

[link] [parent] [reply]

I'm in the midst of studying legalese, and I'd say this is a typo, rather than any legal term.

And, yeah, what?!

[link] [reply]

As a mere English teacher of English, I would categorise it as Bad English.

[link] [reply]

Or more excitingly, we can call it obsolete English.

You're a professional categorizer of English! That's no "mere"!

[link] [parent] [reply]

I'm not a proper lecturer or Dr or anything. So I don't have to do the PC linguistics thing and say "low-status form" - I can just say it is Wrong. *g*

That link is cool, though. I'm not in the slightest bit convinced any modern user of the term knows it!

[link] [parent] [reply]

I actually found a couple of examples of it when I was looking into it earlier:

To this the answer is briefly, that if we have such a quantity of wares as doth fully provide us of all things needful from beyond the seas, why should we then doubt that our monies sent out in trade, must not necessarily come back again in treasure [...] - England's Treasure by Foreign Trade, Thomas Mun, 1664 ( Link )

Let us go to the king, he is young, and shew him what servage we be in, and shew him how we will have it otherwise, or else we will provide us of some remedy; and if we go together, all manner of people that be now in any bondage will follow us to the intent to be made free - Wat Tyler’s Rebellion: How the Commons of England Rebelled against the Noblemen in The Chronicles of Froissart, Jean Froissart ( Link )

For the people do easily presume of their kings as wee doe of our servants that they should take care plenteously to provide us of whatsoever wee stand in neede of, but that on their behalfe they should no way lay hands on it. - Montaigne's Essays: Book III, Chapter VI, 1603 ( Link )

The second of those (which according to the link dates to the late 1300s) is slightly different in usage given it's effectively reflexive, but the intention's the same.

[link] [parent] [reply]

And a few more. That last is a PDF, unfortunately, but it contains the most fantastic line on the second subtantive page:

The particular of it is that bounty is bankrupt, and Lady Sensuality licks all the fat from the seven liberal sciences, that poetry, if it were not a trick to please my lady, would be excluded out of Christian burial, and instead of wreaths of laurel to crown it with, have a bell with a coxcomb clapped on the crown of it by old Johannes de Indagines and his choir of dorbellists.

[link] [parent] [reply]

Definitely not legalese. Talking of context, where did it crop up? Looking at the said 180,000 hits the vast majority seem to be examples where "with" would be correct, so I suspect typo. Moreover, if you tell it to remove any example of "provide us of course" it only gives you 242 hits.

Also if you search for "please provide us of" there are actually only 13 hits (even if Google says there are 28,000 or so), one of which is this post...

[link] [reply]

Thank you for a more careful search than mine. Due diligence and all.

It cropped up in a form I received from our brand-new solicitors. I had to copy it down before returning the form, it was so striking.

[link] [parent] [reply]

Incidentally, your post has now risen to 6th of 13 hits!

[link] [parent] [reply]

But try the same elimination with "me", as in "provide me of", but subtracting "provide me of course". There's another 234. "You" gets another 544 hits. "Him" only adds 34, and "her" a lousy 18, but "them" adds another 156 hits.

That still doesn't total a whole lot, but even so, the hits seem to be disproportionately in legal contexts. Admittedly, this may be because "provide" is used disproportionately in legal contexts.

Edited Date: 2008-03-07 06:04 pm (UTC)

[link] [parent] [reply]

I would argue that it's more because solicitors : grammar as chalk : cheese.

[link] [parent] [reply]

You would know!

But it seems perverse - grammar matters more in legal contexts than almost anywhere else, in terms of the power of what meaning it creates.

[link] [parent] [reply]

Well it's only really an issue in things like contracts and the associated law; when you're writing a regular letter it's really neither here nor there, and on more than one occasion I've advised new secretaries to listen to what the solicitor says and then type what they actually mean - when dictation's not too fast/quiet it's frequently nonsensical instead.

Ironically, though, it can be better to be obtuse with your grammar to leave things vague - this story springs to mind.

[link] [parent] [reply]

It is silly. Nothing more. :)

[link] [reply]

UK: it's bad English. "Provide" should always be followed by "with".

[link] [reply]

It is possibly along the lines of 'Treat of ...' which I have never seen outside of an exam paper.

[link] [reply]

I can always count on you to provide an interesting string of comments for me to read. :)

Have a wonderful weekend.

[link] [reply]

S. Worthen | Weblog

What language is this?

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)

October

Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10 1	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30	31