Crosswords0 min ago
A big ask
17 Answers
"It's a big ask but I think we can do it". When did 'ask' become a noun ? Is it's use in this way just a British usage or has it come from some other anglophone country?
Answers
1 to 17 of 17
Best Answer
No best answer has yet been selected by FredPuli43. Once a best answer has been selected, it will be shown here.
For more on marking an answer as the "Best Answer", please visit our FAQ.
Chambers 11th Edition has 'Ask' as a Noun, something demanded or requested...eg A tough ask.
Interesting discussion here too....
http://
Interesting discussion here too....
http://
Interesting link (above).
I've not heard it as 'the sum sought' in fundraising, nor as in 'it depends what the ask is' but only as ' the asking for, or expectation or hope of, something to be done'. It may have become a noun in two or three different places separately. The US version may have started as the word for the sum sought in fundraising and been applied to other things, as Kerry used it. The Australian version seems to have less specific from the beginning. The UK version seems different again.
A Canadian friend, who lives near the US border, in Ontario, had never heard it used until she returned to England recently, 20 years after leaving. She found it used frequently here and did not think it was American, for if it was general or common in American speech she would have encountered it. (Another new 'anglicism' was 'Bless!' in response to some innocent or naive statement of a child etc)
I like it in the sense it's used here. It condenses a long phrase into one word.
I've not heard it as 'the sum sought' in fundraising, nor as in 'it depends what the ask is' but only as ' the asking for, or expectation or hope of, something to be done'. It may have become a noun in two or three different places separately. The US version may have started as the word for the sum sought in fundraising and been applied to other things, as Kerry used it. The Australian version seems to have less specific from the beginning. The UK version seems different again.
A Canadian friend, who lives near the US border, in Ontario, had never heard it used until she returned to England recently, 20 years after leaving. She found it used frequently here and did not think it was American, for if it was general or common in American speech she would have encountered it. (Another new 'anglicism' was 'Bless!' in response to some innocent or naive statement of a child etc)
I like it in the sense it's used here. It condenses a long phrase into one word.
Fred, ask was used as a noun as long ago as 1000 AD and was certainly still in use thus in the late 19th century, so we cannot condemn it as an Americanism! Let's just call it a 'revival', shall we?
Factor, if you are referring to the use of absolutely to mean emphatically yes or quite so, this has been in use since the 1890s. Originally an Americanism, it has been freely used by British speakers and writers for over a century. I think it's about time we just accepted it. It ain't gonna go away!
Factor, if you are referring to the use of absolutely to mean emphatically yes or quite so, this has been in use since the 1890s. Originally an Americanism, it has been freely used by British speakers and writers for over a century. I think it's about time we just accepted it. It ain't gonna go away!
1 to 17 of 17
