| 词组 | an't, a'n't |
| 释义 | an't, a'n't This is the original contraction that eventually gave us ain't. It may possibly have originated as an Irishism; at least the earliest evidence we have found so far occurs in the writing of Congreve, Farquhar, and Swift. The contraction seems to have dropped out of use in the U.S. around the middle of the 19th century and in England a bit later. In America it was replaced by ain't; in England it seems to have been replaced by aren't, although a few writers use ain't. See ain't; aren't I. Here are a few examples from the past: • Miss PRUE. You need not sit so near one, if you have any thing to say, I can hear you farther off, I an't deaf —William Congreve, Love for Love, 1695 • CHERRY.... I hope, Sir, you an't affronted — George Farquhar, The Beaux Stratagem, 1707 • ... an't I a reasonable creature? —Jonathan Swift, Journal to Stella, 18 Feb. 1711 • SIR PETER. TWO hundred pounds! what, a'n't I to be in a good humor without paying for it? —Richard Brinsley Sheridan, A School for Scandal, 1783 • It is thought he has gone sick upon them. He a'n't well, that's certain —Charles Lamb, letter, 26 Feb. 1808 • An a'n't I a woman? —Sojourner Truth, recorded by Frances D. Gage, May 1851 (in J. L. Dillard, American Talk, 1976) |
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