How goes it today? What say you?

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"And how goes it today?". I've found this in "The Case of the Caretaker", a short story by Agatha Christie. Another such phrase comes to mind: "What say you?".
Is either expression still used?
P.S. I've always thought that "thrice" was an archaic term. I'm no longer so sure. Is it indeed archaic?
Bye, FB

"The doctors found out that Bunbury could not live, that is what I mean¡Xso Bunbury died."
"He seems to have had great confidence in the opinion of his physicians." ("The Importance of Being Earnest", Oscar Wilde)

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]"And how goes it today?". I've found this in "The Case of the Caretaker", a short story by Agatha Christie. Another such phrase comes to mind: "What say you?". Is either expression still used?[/nq]
By some at times, but not usually.
[nq:1]P.S. I've always thought that "thrice" was an archaic term. I'm no longer so sure. Is it indeed archaic?[/nq]
Only a couple of the meanings are archaic.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition.
2000.

thrice
ADVERB: 1. Three times. 2. In a threefold quantity or degree. 3. Archaic Extremely; greatly.

Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/

Usenet · Answer

$.(Email Removed):
[nq:1]P.S. I've always thought that "thrice" was an archaic term. I'm no longer so sure. Is it indeed archaic?[/nq]
James Hogan, a transplanted Englishman, here in the U.S.A. used it in the title of his sf novel, Thrice Upon A Time , published in 1980.

Then there was that line, I think, from "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum", where they sang about 'raping Thrace thrice'. ;-)

David Wright
http://home.alltel.net/dwrighsr/index.html

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]"And how goes it today?". I've found this in "The Case of the Caretaker", a short story by Agatha Christie. Another such phrase comes to mind: "What say you?". Is either expression still used?[/nq]
"How goes it?" is common. Just means "How are things?" or "How are you?"
"What say you?" is archaic, but you'll hear it used occasionally in a jocular way. "How say you, 'Guilty', or 'not guilty'?", on the other hand, is the form of words used I think even now by the Clerk to a Court when asking the Foreman of a Jury for its verdict.
[nq:1]P.S. I've always thought that "thrice" was an archaic term. I'm no longer so sure. Is it indeed archaic?[/nq]
It's almost archaic in BrE, but not quite. For example, I can't imagine myself seriously saying "I woke up thrice in the night", but I might easily say "My thrice-weekly trip to London is a bore".

Mike.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]"And how goes it today?". I've found this in "The Case of the Caretaker",a short story by Agatha Christie. Another such phrase comes to mind: "What say you?". Is either expression still used?[/nq]
How come that you ask this particular question at this particular time? Indeed, how dare you ask such a question here, in this forum? How fell the cards of fate, that I should now be answering you? What know I of such matters as fate? What matters it whether I answer you or no?

Richard Chambers Leeds UK.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]"And how goes it today?". I've found this in "The Case of the Caretaker", a short story by Agatha Christie. Another such phrase comes to mind: "What say you?". Is either expression still used?[/nq]
"How goes it?" is used jocularly by white English speaking South Africans as a literal translation of the Afrikaans "Hoe gaan dit?"

As in the sentence "I went shooting with my heavy the other day and when I saw an iron pig I pulled loose with my hail gun and there it lay with its bones in the light."

Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]P.S. I've always thought that "thrice" was an archaic term. I'm no longer so sure. Is it indeed archaic?[/nq]
[nq:1]James Hogan, a transplanted Englishman, here in the U.S.A. used it in the title of his sf novel, Thrice ... think, from "A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum", where they sang about 'raping Thrace thrice'. ;-)[/nq]
"'Tis the voice of the Jubjub!" he suddenly cried. (This man, that they used to call "Dunce.")
"As the Bellman would tell you," he added with pride, "I have uttered that sentiment once.
"'Tis the note of the Jubjub! Keep count, I entreat; You will find I have told it you twice.
'Tis the song of the Jubjub! The proof is complete, If only I've stated it thrice."
The Beaver had counted with scrupulous care,
Attending to every word:
But it fairly lost heart, and outgrabe in despair, When the third repetition occurred.
I think that I only have it in my active vocabulary in adjectives such as "thrice-weekly", which don't show up very often. And even there, I'd probably resort to "three-times-a-week".

Evan Kirshenbaum + HP Laboratories >The great thing about Microsoft
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 >dominating the world is thatPalo Alto, CA 94304 >there's no shortage of support

http://www.kirshenbaum.net/

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]"And how goes it today?". I've found this in "The Case of the Caretaker", a short story by Agatha Christie. Another such phrase comes to mind: "What say you?". Is either expression still used?[/nq]
"How's it goin'?" is commonly used in the United States. It is not usually meant as a request for an explanation of how it is, indeed, going.

Mike Nitabach

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]"And how goes it today?". I've found this in "The Case of th=ADe Caretaker", a short story by Agatha Christie. Another such phrase comes to=AD mind: "What say you?". Is either expression still used?[/nq]
Yes, still used, but surely they're usually to some extent "marked" or "striking", in comparison with expressions like "How's it going?", "How are you going?", "How are you doing?", "How's it coming along?" surely they'd be understood as archaic or facetious or affected or good-naturedly informal or a product of conscious variation?

And can "What say you?" avoid associations of juries and formal meetings...?
I'm not sure what it is exactly that marks the expressions, but isn't it at least something to do with using a verb that isn't "to be" and isn't an auxiliary directly after an interrogative word? Something to do with inversion? What shop you for? When comes the train from Bristol? Why go you to the Quickiemart?
[nq:1]P.S. I've always thought that "thrice" was an archaic term. =ADI'm no longer so sure. Is it indeed archaic?[/nq]
For what it's worth, "thrice" sounds archaic to me (Aust English speaker in Sydney), though not as archaic as "thee" and "thou".

But I suspect this sort of thing is very open to regional difference. I'm sometimes surprised that usages I find unexceptional are regarded as archaic elsewhere. For instance, it's common in Sydney to talk of "fortnights", but, at least on tiny-sample group-of-friends evidence, this seems to be old-fashioned to US ears.
One more thought... Putting aside preservation in specific contexts, what's the line, anyway, between not-archaic and archaic, or between archaic and obsolete? Isn't it always a matter of degree? And what potentially complicates the question (or so I'd argue) is that something can be archaic but in regular usage, for isn't archaism a matter of the meaning and effect of a word rather than its frequency?

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D
Regards,
VI
http://kenm.mydeardiary.com/

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]"And how goes it today?". I've found this in "The ... to mind: "What say you?". Is either expression still used?[/nq]
[nq:1]"How goes it?" is common. Just means "How are things?" or "How are you?"[/nq]
Where would you rank it in comparison with "How are you?"?
Bye, FB

Conversation like television set on honeymoon: unnecessary. (Murder by Death)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]"How goes it?" is common. Just means "How are things?" or "How are you?"[/nq]
[nq:1] Where would you rank it in comparison with "How are you?"?[/nq]
Much less formal, and less frequent. I use it occasionally, consciously and for variety, and only to intimates. But it's the kind of thing a given individual might use most of the time, just as some people might habitually say "Wotcher", (which is just the Shakespearean "What cheer?" in modern dress).
Mike.

How goes it today? What say you?

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