| 词组 | under way, under weigh |
| 释义 | under way, under weigh This is an old issue, and possibly a dead one. The original expression is under way, probably adapted from the Dutch onderweg, "on the way." It is, of course, a nautical expression describing a vessel that is moving through the water or is not lying at anchor or aground. The first written record of under way is from 1743. Under weigh first appeared in print not long afterward, in 1777. No doubt the substitution of weigh for way was influenced by the use of the verb weigh to mean "lift" in "weigh anchor." Neither under way nor under weigh makes much literal sense, but under weigh at least has the advantage of looking nautical, and there seems to be some logic, however obscure, in saying that a ship that has weighed anchor is under weigh. For whatever reason, many prominent authors in the past have preferred under weigh to under way: • "... The bark that wafts us hence will be under weigh ere we can reach the port." —Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe, 1819 • She got under weigh with very little fuss —Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast, 1840 (OED) • ... no profane songs would be allowed on board the Pequod, particularly in getting under weigh —Herman Melville, Moby Dick, 1851 (in Reader's Digest 1983) The first commentator to call such usage a mistake was Bache 1869. His 20th-century brethren have also favored under way, although several acknowledge that under weigh has a history of respectable use. The OED treats both under way and under weigh as standard. Our evidence indicates, however, that under weigh is now extremely rare, much more so than during the 19th century. Katherine Anne Porter used it in Harper's in 1950 (thereby provoking two letters to the editor, one pro and one con), but we have no evidence of its use since then. Chances are that it has fallen into disuse chiefly because under way has come to be used so widely in general contexts (as in "The meeting got under way at noon") that way is now firmly established in most people's minds as the correct word, whether one is speaking of oceangoing vessels or political campaigns. Under weigh, it seems, has never been used except in nautical contexts. There is an increasing tendency in recent years to write under way as a solid word, underway: • Work is already underway on a new East River tunnel —Bruce Kovner, New York, 7 Feb. 1972 • ... the constitutional conference now underway in London —Gary Thatcher, Christian Science Monitor, 12 Sept. 1979 • Already the day was well underway —Nathaniel Tripp, Blair & Ketchum's Country Jour., June 1980 It is quite possible that this solid form will eventually predominate over the two-word form, but for the time being under way is still somewhat more common. |
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