| 词组 | ways |
| 释义 | ways Ways has been used as a synonym of way in such expressions as "a long ways off' since at least 1588. The OED includes citations for this use from Henry Fielding, Lord Byron, and Stephen Crane, among others. In this century, it has been called different things by different critics (Ambrose Bierce, for one, called it "surprising"), but the usual label is something like "colloquial" or "informal." It occurs widely, however, and is by no means limited to the spoken language: • We went inland a ways —H. L. Mountzoures, New Yorker, 30 Oct. 1971 • ... the downturn still has a ways to go —Alan Abel-son, Barron's, 24 July 1972 • ... a short ways outside of Greenfield —Peter Marshall, Massachusetts Wildlife, September-October 1969 • Casey's idea of fund-raising was quite a ways from mine —Wilfrid Sheed, People Will Always Be Kind, 1973 • ... still a long ways from a solution —Raymond W. Murray, Man's Unknown Ancestors, 1943 • ... any wholesale hacking away at production facilities ... seems a ways away —Business Week, 2 Feb. 1981 Such usage is standard in American English. In British English, on the other hand, it appears to have died out (the British dictionaries which enter ways now label it "North American"). Its occurrence in writing is still frowned upon by a number of commentators. Way, of course, occurs more commonly, and without any stigma. |
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