词组 | fit, fitted |
释义 | fit, fitted 1. There seems to be a bit of confusion about the alternative past and past participle forms of the verb fit. Both fitted and fit are used in the United States; only fitted appears to be used in British English. The Linguistic Atlas information given in Bryant 1962 shows that there may be other geographical considerations involved too—one study showed fitted more common in New England and another showed fit more common in the Middle West. There should perhaps be a tiny isogloss in New York City in the area of the New York Times offices: Theodore Bernstein 1962, 1965, 1971, 1977 insists on fitted (in 1971 he allowed fit fit for speech, but not for print), and so does his successor, as recently as in Winners & Sinners, 20 Mar. 1987. Evans 1957, Bryant 1962, Lamberts 1972, and Heritage 1982 present opinion or evidence showing some preference for fitted when the verb is used in a causative sense: • During the off-season he was fitted with glasses — Rick Telander, Sports Illustrated, 2 Aug. 1982 Our evidence for this sense does not confirm the dominance offitted, even though it seems right intuitively. It may be that the Middle Western (or perhaps other) dialectal preference may sometimes counter this general trend of using fitted for the causative sense. At least, we have this example: • A fine shirtmaker will tell you that... you are perfectly capable of being fit —G. Bruce Boyer, Town & Country, February 1983 One problem here is that we don't really know that much about the development of fit as an irregular past and past participle. No one to this point seems to have put together a great deal of information about it. For now you need only remember that in American English both fitted and fit are correct; your preference in a particular instance may be conditioned by where you were born. British English uses fitted. Evans 1957 thinks fit more common than fitted in the U.S., but he was working in the Middle West. Our files show fitted somewhat more common than fit in print. 2. There is also an adjective fit which in its earliest and still current sense, "adapted to an end or design," goes back to the 14th century. It is actually a couple of hundred years older than the verb. This adjective is frequently used as a predicate adjective followed by for or to and an infinitive: • It was a hearse fit for a royal corpse —Russell Baker, Growing Up, 1982 • ... I write a great deal that is not fit to read —Flan-nery O'Connor, letter, 4 May 1955 In British English especially, the participial adjective fitted is often used in place of fit: • I have attained to all the wisdom which I am fitted to bear —James Stephens, The Crock of Gold, 1912 • Dryden was a natural laureate, fitted for the post by outlook, ambition and poetic temper —John Gross, NY. Times Book Rev., 15 July 1984 It seems likely that confusion with the verb—the senses of verb and adjective overlap to a certain degree— accounts for some instances in which fitted is used. When fit is used in its newest sense, "in sound physical condition," it is never replaced by fitted. |
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