| 词组 | all together, altogether |
| 释义 | all together, altogether 1. Copperud 1970, 1980 warns us that these expressions are often confused; a score of books or more from 1907 to the present warn us not to confuse them. Evidence in the OED suggests, in fact, that all together "in a group"—actually an intensified form of all— was up until the late 16th or early 17th century spelled altogether. Thus, what the modern handbooks call confusion would appear to be simply a substitution of an obsolete spelling for what is now the usual form. The problem is perhaps exacerbated by the sense of the adverb altogether that means "in all, in sum, in toto": • Altogether, about 1,500 insects died in the Harvard laboratories —Isaac Asimov, Think, May-J une 1967 • ... altogether she has recorded twelve discs for this label —Current Biography, June 1967 This sense was at least once converted to all together, perhaps by someone who was trying too hard not to confuse the two: • Kazanski batted in five runs all together —N.Y. Times, 9 Aug. 1956 (cited in Winners & Sinners 15 Aug. 1956) It is, however, the opposite error that the handbooks seem mostly interested in. It is first spotted in Fowler & Fowler 1907, where an example from something John Ruskin wrote is cited. Fowler 1926 adds a few more examples. The OED Supplement takes notice, with examples from 1765 to 1930. The Merriam-Webster files contain a few examples too: • Put it altogether, and it added up to a tragic Labor Day weekend —Deerfield (Wise.) Independent, 2 Sept. 1954 • ... designs these three pieces with enough panache to be worn with basic black, or altogether as an ensemble —Boston Proper Catalog, Spring/Summer 1982 Here are a few examples of all together: • ... life ... is wider than science or art or philosophy or all together —Jacques Barzun, quoted in Current Biography, September 1964 • ... the crowd rose to them, clapping all together in time —William Hunter, Glasgow (Scotland) Herald, 14 June 1974 All together can be divided by intervening words, as those know who remember the satirist Tom Lehrer's line "We'll all go together when we go": • We must all be there together —Cleveland Amory, Saturday Rev., 28 June 1969 There is a modern use of together as an adjective—a use sometimes associated with psychobabble—that is occasionally given emphasis by the addition of all: • Does he look nervous? Does he have it all together? —V. Lance Tarrance, quoted in N.Y. Times Mag., 15 June 1980 • The trouble was, however, that it was so concerned and involved and relevant and all together and right-on —Cleveland Amory, TV Guide, 13 Mar. 1971 • ... records for us Boswell-like the public all-together Angels —Times Literary Supp., 11 Jan. 1968 This use too can turn up with the spelling of the adverb: • ... just a nice, warm altogether sort of a family — Walter Schackenbach, quoted in N. Y. Times, 5 Mar. 1984 In spite of the instances from 1765 to 1984 of the adverbial spelling in place of the usually adjectival phrase, all together does not appear to be in danger of being replaced by the old one-word form. Still, you will want to take care in your choice of spelling, case by case. 2. We are assured by Copperud that when altogether means "nude" in the phrase in the altogether, it is spelled as one word. Why this warning is necessary is not clear, for no evidence of a two-word spelling has been brought forward since the expression first appeared in the novel Trilby by George du Maurier in 1894, and we have none. Perhaps the possibility of punning worries the pundits: • ... these kids continually indulged in swimming all together in the "altogether" —The Bulletin (Sydney, Australia), 9 May 1903 A more interesting question is how du Maurier's "for the 'altogether'" became in the altogether, as it had by 1903. No one offers a guess. |
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