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How did it take me twelve years to learn this?

So I says to Uncle B, “I emailed that to you. You should have gotten it by now.” And he breaks out laughing. And I’m like, what? And he’s like, ‘gotten’. And I’m like, don’t you say gotten? And he’s like, maybe in Tudor times.

So I go to work and I say, do you say gotten? And they’re like, maybe in Elizabethan times.

How did I not know this? Have they been snickering behind their hands all this time?

“I emailed that to you. You should have got it by now.” sounds all kinds of wrong.

The image above is from the famous ‘mind blown’ reaction gif. But where did it come from? If you give a flying one, the story is here.

p.s. LesterIII wins the Dead Pool with Norman Loyd. I confess, I had no idea who he was, but I looked up his picture and I kinda recognize him. Fair is fair. New Dead Pool tomorrow.

Comments


Comment from QuasiModo
Time: May 13, 2021, 10:08 pm

Gotten sounds correct…’got’ sounds like slang…those philistines. From Canada so you aren’t alone, SWeasy.


Comment from Anonymous
Time: May 13, 2021, 11:52 pm

More than you probably want to know about the word gotten…yes, we Stoatians are if nothing else, pedantic.


Comment from Mitchell
Time: May 13, 2021, 11:56 pm

“Gotten” is verboten? This is something with which I simply shannot accept. If it’s a word good enough for His Maj Henry the Eighth then it’s certainly good enough for you!


Comment from BJM
Time: May 14, 2021, 12:24 am

Wish I’d gotten one of these on the way home.

Absolutely mesmerizing…turn on the closed captions.


Comment from jwpaine
Time: May 14, 2021, 1:16 am

If I’d known you was a wanting to come I’d a seen you got to get to go.


Comment from OldFert
Time: May 14, 2021, 1:24 am

Anonymous–
That it was a common British usage when we broke from England makes sense. Years ago I read that often the new settlements retained customs and usages of the old country.


Comment from AliceH
Time: May 14, 2021, 1:31 am

Very weird. I use “gotten”, and have never gotten (heh) any reaction to it from any British acquaintances, not even when I lived in Brighton. I, on the other hand, couldn’t help but wince at best every time I encountered “orientate”. Ugh.


Comment from bds
Time: May 14, 2021, 1:41 am

OldFert –
It’s been a few years back, but there was an article about how American English is closer to spoken English from three-hundred years ago than is current British English.
Not the one I was thinking of, but: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20180207-how-americans-preserved-british-english


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: May 14, 2021, 9:51 am

“Whilst” is the one that gets me, Alice. What’re you, a poet?


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: May 14, 2021, 10:58 am

It seems the English have “forgot” how to speak their own language? Do they say ‘forgotten’ Weasy?
Sort of the same principle no?

Should you listen to them? They can’t seem to find the ‘article’ that ought to be used in the phrase – “He’s in the hospital.”

He’s in Hospital?
Do they “get on boat” when they cross bodies of water?
Do they “go to chemist” when they want pharmaceuticals?

Or are they dropping articles so they can pretend to be Eastern Europeans?
“We go restaurant! You have money I send you? You should have got by now!”

and they say odd things like:
“She’s in bed with the doctor, she’s having a horrible time!”


Comment from Deborah HH
Time: May 14, 2021, 2:04 pm

I say “have gotten” and I can’t remember being taught that it was improper. To my ear, it’s “have got” that sounds lazy, like leaving the ly off of adverbs. But I have a set of English grammar books written in the late 50s that were designed for self-education, so I will look for “would have got(ten)” in them.


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: May 14, 2021, 2:47 pm

FWIW, here’s the OED entry. All it says about usage is “Now rare“, meaning not obsolete and not incorrect and not colloquial and not regional:

gotten, ppl. a.

(ˈgɒt(ə)n)

Forms: see get v.; also got ppl. a.

[pa. pple. of get v.]

1. Obtained, acquired, won (chiefly with accompanying adverb). Now rare, exc. in ill-gotten.


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: May 14, 2021, 5:44 pm

@BJM – ah note the delicate way they handled the basic cake portion after baking!

And to think I just finished making gingerbread, I guess I should have tossed it around the kitchen a bit when it was ready!


Comment from Rich Rostrom
Time: May 14, 2021, 11:24 pm

Google nGrams sez it was fairly rare until recently; it became 4x as common in American, starting about 1985, and 3x as common in British, starting about 2005.


Comment from Anonymous
Time: May 14, 2021, 11:31 pm

durnedyankee: That’s because it’s considered a condition, not a location.

Like being “in school”, “in college”, “in jail”, “in prison”, or “in court” (all of which could be locations).


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: May 15, 2021, 9:16 am

Good point “Anonymous”, I yield to that logic, dammit, because it makes sense.

Yes, saying “Jeffery Epstein didn’t kill himself in the prison” would be completely true, but it would sound wrong.


Comment from Steve
Time: May 15, 2021, 9:12 pm

“Gotted”?


Comment from drew458
Time: May 17, 2021, 11:34 pm

Something wrong with “received”?

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