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HSS Posted 19 years ago
Grammar

Visit itself upon, Visit

0Hi. Could someone please help me understand the difference between simple "visit" and "visit itself upon" as in the following examples?02br
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00[1] A really terrible tornado 01b00visited itself upon02b00 the metro area.02br
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00[2] A really terrible tornado 01b00visited02b00 the metro area.02br
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00Hiro0-
  

Top answer

02br 02br 01i 00Visited itself upon02i 00 has a very strong connotation. 02br 02br 00The second sentence (01i 00visited02i 00) seems much less intense. It also seems a bit strange to me.

— Nef

  • 02br 02br 01i 00Visited itself upon02i 00 has a very strong connotation.
  • 02br 02br 00The second sentence (01i 00visited02i 00) seems much less intense.
  • It also seems a bit strange to me.
  • 01i 00A really terrible tornado02i 00 in a metro (urban) area is a 01u 00catastrophe02u 00, but 01i 00visited02i 00, by itself,01i 00 02i 00can be a casual word.
  • It doesn't convey nearly the sense of 01u 00menace02u 00 that 01i 00visited itself upon02i 00 does.
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5 Answers
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0Hi, Hiro02br
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00Here are my ideas.02br
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01i00Visited itself upon02i00 has a very strong connotation. Words like 01i00savaged, devastated, destroyed, 02i00and 01i00annihilated 02i00come to mind.02br
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00The second sentence (01i00visited02i00
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0 I'd use "inflict" instead of "visit" at 1). It's more frequent and more clear:02br
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00 4 from nytimes.com for "visited itself"02br
00 15 from nytimes.com for "inflicted itself"0-
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0Hi.02br
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00Could you use a human subject such as "the horrendous killer" in any way as in "The horrendous killer visited himself on her"? Would it always be "itself"?02br
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00Hiro0-
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0 01b01i00Visit02i00 has too many meanings to be used without problems/confusion. 02br
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00 I'd strongly suggest the use of 01i00afflict/inflict/impose02i00 (see 1b here), which have less meanings. 02br
00 ------------02br
00 vis·it02b02br
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01i00transitive
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0Does the expression only take a non-living subject, such as a typhoon, ?02br
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00Hiro0-
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