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Mr. Tom Posted 10 years ago
Vocabulary

Use of desist

Hi

I heard the word desist used something like this in a movie made somewhere in 1980s. 

(Teacher to students)

I want all of you to desist from telling lies and fighting like animals. 

I want to know if the use of desist would sound perfectly natural to native ears in everyday life.

Thanks,

Tom
  

Top answer

No — it sounds dated and stilted these days. Use 'stop', rather than 'desist from'.

— Rover_KE

  • No — it sounds dated and stilted these days.
  • Use 'stop', rather than 'desist from'.
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12 Answers
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No — it sounds dated and stilted these days.

Use 'stop', rather than 'desist from'.
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Mr. TomI want to know if the use of desist would sound perfectly natural to native ears in everyday life.
I don't hear it or use it much in everyday life, but I wouldn't find it unnatural in formal English (e.g. legal writing).
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Mr. TomTeacher to students
If it was an English class, the teacher may have been trying to expand the students' vocabulary as well as to control their behavior.
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Mr. Tomused something like this in a movie made somewhere in 1980s.
Shouldn"t be "somewhen" instead of "somewhere" in the above?
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'Somewhen' is not a word. Perhaps you mean 'sometime'.

But 'somswhere' is commonly said and accepted, ie at some point.
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Clive'Somewhen' is not a word. Perhaps you mean 'sometime'.But 'somswhere' is commonly said and accepted, ie at some point.
Merriam-Webster lists it as an adverb.
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Indeed it does. But my Canadian Oxford dictionary doesn't.
It sounds substandard to me.
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Where I live (UK), "somewhen" is dialect or bad English. It is not a word in standard English.
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GPYWhere I live (UK), "somewhen" is dialect or bad English.
Does a dialect equal a bad language?
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AnonymousDoes a dialect equal a bad language?
No, not in its place.
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