Joy to the World!
The Lord is Come!
Whoa...wait a minute. Is that grammatically correct? Wouldn't it be, "the Lord has come?" Well, according to Grammar Girl, the phrase uses an archaic form of English that was used back in 1719 when Isaac Watts wrote the song "Joy to the World." In this instance, the word "come" is an unaccusative intransitive verb. (Yeah, I don't know what that means, either, but the point is that it's a form that's basically extinct in the English language.) It wasn't until the 1900s that people stopped speaking this way. Many Romance languages still use this verb form though; it's normal in languages like French and Italian to say the English equivalent of "He is come."And even though I think it sounds a little strange, I still think it's beautiful.
Side note: While looking for a picture to post with this blog, I came across the coolest Christmas cards ever on someone's flickr account! Christmas, pink, and dinosaurs, all combined. Genius.
1 comment:
That card is freaking awesome. I think I shall send out Christmas cards next year. Also thanks for sharing the Lord is Come part. When I read that it makes more sense. Jesus is with us. He is in us as we are in him.
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