Comments on: Bar the Doors and Hide Your Daughters — Blogging Will Occur Tonight!

By: Jimmie

Jimmie — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:55:02 +0000

I think of myself as Brett Favre-ish.

By: Ron Coleman

Ron Coleman — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 23:47:36 +0000

Anyway your "retirement" would even embarrass The Who.

By: Jimmie

Jimmie — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:05:41 +0000

Well, "ought", in that context, isn't common. He's right about that.

By: ~* Cheesestick *~

~* Cheesestick *~ — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:54:34 +0000

Hmmm…not sure what I missed…"ought" is not a common word? It is where I'm from.

By: Jimmie

Jimmie — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:12:21 +0000

To be honest with you, I was going to change it to "aught". Originally, I had written "I ought to say something", but thought that "I have aught to say" sounded better and wouldn't take much to change. I realized that I could change "ought" to "aught" but I like the older spelling in this phrase.

I have seen "ought" used this way before, but not very often. Maybe that's why is appealed to me.

By: EricH

EricH — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 11:56:35 +0000

I like the archaic flavor of "I have ought to say", but–it hearkens back to an era when spelling was a matter of taste. Nowadays, the spelling "ought" generally means "should," and the homonym that means "something" is usually spelled "aught." It has the advantage that the reader who's unfamiliar with it can say, "I've never seen that word before, perhaps I can look it up," rather than "I know all these words, but they don't mean anything together."

(I started out being even more critical, because this is the first I've seen the spelling you used, but the Oxford American Dictionary says you're not wrong….)