Staid vs. Stayed
Minor English question here - in diary entries from the war I keep seeing 'staid' used instead of 'stayed', for example, "Last night I staid at Mr. Green's house." Was staid taught back then, or just a common misspelling? One diarist is Horatio Nelson Taft, a very educated man and personal friend of the president, and he uses staid frequently. Was this just a language quirk of the time?
Scott Lawalin
Pvt., 49th Indiana
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; [then] beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours." - General Sir James Napier
You peaked my curiousity. Dictionary.com has two meanings for it, adjective and verb. The verb form describes as follows:
Archaic. a simple past tense and past participle of stay
So, it looks like it was just a common spelling of the time
Scott Mecca
143rd Pennsylvania Inf. Co A
Union Volunteers
Spelling was not standardized in the 19th century. Words got spelled phonetically, a lot.
Andrew Grim
Monte Mounted Rifles, Monte Boys
Mess of Myself
Occasional 7%er
Hallo!
In a semi-lirerate society, phonetic spelling abounds.
And as shared, yes... there are "archaic" versions that go, or fade in an out, or are still used.
We just had a discussion this past weekened over "-ed" versus '-t" past endings. Such as "I burnt the toast." versus "I burned the toast."
Staid versus tayed is a bit more archaic than paid versus payed, or said versus sayed."
Curt
In gleichem Schritt und Tritt, Curt Schmidt
Not a real Civil War reenactor, I only portray one on boards and fora.
I do not portray a Civil War soldier, I merely interpret one.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks