"On the word of"

Question

Should this phrase be used when you want to acknowledge the source of a particular piece of information?Ex. On the word of Professor Smith, &lt;what Prof. Smith said&gt;.

Avangi · Accepted Answer

Yes, that's correct.

It can also imply authorization. On the word of Mr. Smith, I shredded the whole file.

Clive · Answer

Hi,

Should this phrase be used when you want to acknowledge the source of a particular piece of information?

Ex. On the word of Professor Smith,.

To me, this doesn't sound right at all.

I'd say
eg In the words of Professor Smith, "The Earth is flat".
eg Professor Smith says / states / alleges that the Earth is flat.
eg According to Professor Smith, the Earth is flat.

Clive

Avangi · Answer

I understand it as "[based] on the word of Mr. Smith, a decision was made -- an action was/will be taken."
(It's not a casual remark.)
Are you telling me you closed this deal on the word of Mr. Smith?!!
(Maybe it's archaic now.)

- A.

Edit.

Here's a very current excerpt, which sounds perfectly natural to me:

Yet the 'Unhived' Mind website 'reports' this garbage, as above, again with no evidence,
only on the word of Mr. Watt who produces ... no evidence.

Here's one from the Civil War, a little more in my time:

It is my luck to be always running against The Herald's blunders or fabrications. The capture of the Sunbeam is ascribed in that sheet to the Mystic, whereas the fact is, on the word of Mr. Rogers and Mr. White, the commander's aid, both gentlemen of honor, "the State of Georgia captured the Sunbeam, and had a prize crew on board of her before the Mystic came up."

One from 2012:
This means that people were prosecuted on the word of Mr. Bulger and folks like him.

An old one from Scotland:
You have absolute security , on the word of Mr. Macdonald, etc.

Perhaps I've misunderstood the meaning of the OP:

GrammarLoser:

Should this phrase be used when you want to acknowledge the source of a particular piece of information?

Ex. On the word of Professor Smith, <what Prof. Smith said>.

"On the word of"

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