Word use

ahold

I'm surprised.
I see standard English as being
It is hard to get hold of John these days.

And get ahold of as substandard.

Clive

Hi

I agree with Clive there. I can't get hold of John on the phone at the moment

But ahold does have good US informal usages ...

- Just don't seem to be able to get ahold of myself
[= I am not taking control of my life]

Dave

Hi. I did look it up, and what I found led me to "ahold." I could be wrong.

EnglishmavenI did look it up

So did I, and there it was: ahold
And there was a quote there with it, where 'ahold' was used just as the OP is using it.

CJ

CalifJim EnglishmavenI did look it upSo did I, and there it was: aholdAnd there was a quote there with it, where 'ahold' was used just as the OP is using it.CJ

Hi CJ, so would you say that both 'ahold' and 'hold' are correct or what?

Hi

I'm happy for either to be right! Hold / Ahold

I can see that Englishmaven and CalifJim are using it in the second sense on the page below. For some reason, I'd tend to associate it with the fourth or fifth sense

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ahold

... and this is me being pedantic: in UK English, ahold does have the sense of 'to bring under control' rather than to 'get hold of'

It used to be the nautical term for turning a ship into the wind. Shakespeare has it in the first scene of The Tempest (when they are in fact trying to bring the ship under control, in tempest conditions). Shakespeare uses a hyphen:

- Lay h