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Newguest Posted 14 years ago
Vocabulary

Live to cross it

Hi

"There is a great desert, and none could live to cross it."

Does it mean that no one could cross it during his/her life?
  

Top answer

You are reading that phoney-baloney sword-and-sorcery fanfic again, aren't you? That strikes me as a failed attempt at old-style English. " I think he meant that anyone who tried to cross it would die.

— Enoon

  • You are reading that phoney-baloney sword-and-sorcery fanfic again, aren't you?
  • That strikes me as a failed attempt at old-style English.
  • " I think he meant that anyone who tried to cross it would die.
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4 Answers
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You are reading that phoney-baloney sword-and-sorcery fanfic again, aren't you? That strikes me as a failed attempt at old-style English. I think the writer was shooting for something more like "There is a great desert, and none has ventured a crossing and lived." I think he meant that anyone who tried to cross it would die.
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NewguestThere is a great desert, and none could live to cross it.
It doesn't even sound exactly like English! Was it written by a non-native speaker? It could mean this:

There was a great desert, and nobody could cross it. (none who live ~ nobody)

Or:

There was a desert that was so vast that nobody lived long enough to c
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CalifJimIt doesn't even sound exactly like English! Was it written by a non-native speaker?
It's from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Lyman Frank Baum.
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NewguestIt's from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by Lyman Frank Baum.
No kidding. I guess he was working in a motif I'm unfamiliar with. He was born in 1856. I take back what I wrote, but the sentence is still mighty strange by today's standards.
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