| 词组 | for free |
| 释义 | for free For free, as far as we know, was first aspersed in the Saturday Evening Post, 20 Feb. 1943; the citation is in the American Dialect Dictionary. What is interesting is that the earliest citation shown in the ADD is an anonymous quotation printed in an article in the same magazine, 12 Dec. 1942—just about two months earlier. The phrase must have had quite a bit of popular use at the time. Since 1943 it has become rather fashionable for writers of usage books to disparage the phrase. Shaw 1975, 1987 calls it "wordy slang ... used by careless speakers." Harper 1985 calls it slang and says it is "used only facetiously by careful writers." Bernstein 1965 calls it "semihumorous slang, perhaps originally used by semiliterates." Bernstein's successor at Winners & Sinners (29 Nov. 1985) calls it "comic-book Brooklynese." A couple of commentators dissent. James J. Kilpatrick in a newspaper column (11 Aug. 1985) calls the Harper entry "sniffy" and wonders if the phrase is becoming respectable. He says that the phrase is "shorter than the stiff and formal" phrase without charge. Flesch 1983 defends for free as an idiom. When an idiom that seems to be as recently formed as for free begins to compete with free, gratis, and without charge, speakers and writers probably feel some real need for it. Kilpatrick has given us one hint as to why. You can discover another hint by trying free where these writers wrote for free: • The drivers will pay their transportation ... , but will have the run of the inn for free —N. Y. Times, 25 Dec. 1963 • ... it seemed best to find a way to live for free then —Jane Harriman, Atlantic, March 1970 • The hat they throw in extra for free —James Jones, From Here to Eternity, 1951 You can see here that the for obviates the ambiguous combinations inn free, live free, extra free. In the next example, the removal of for would require its replacement with away in order to preserve normally idiomatic English: • ... to avoid accusations it was giving billable services for free —Datamation, 15 Aug. 1970 And many writers clearly think it lends the right informal note: • ... sunset, the only thing they get for free —Christopher Morley, The Man Who Made Friends With Himself, 1949 • ... the French Parliament, still wrangling in its three-month-old deadlock on whether French children shall receive a Catholic-school education for free —Janet Flanner, New Yorker, 15 Sept. 1951 • ... baby bottles will be warmed for free —B. A. Young, Punch, 1 July 1953 • Here, lessons in how to toss a stole or cape around in ways never thought possible are for free —Lois Lang, New Yorker, 20 Oct. 1951 • Then offer it—for free—to the British Museum — Bennett Cerf, Saturday Rev., 31 Jan. 1948 This idiom is well established in general prose, and you can safely disregard the objections. It is not used in writings of high solemnity, however. |
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