| 词组 | lighted, lit |
| 释义 | lighted, lit A puzzled editor recently wrote to ask about the acceptability of lighted versus lit as past and past participle of light, both in general and in reference to stage lighting in particular. His letter was prompted by one of his authors—a university professor—who claimed that only lighted was proper; lit should be reserved for drunks. The professor is right about drunks, but wrong otherwise. Both lit and lighted are acceptable and standard, and have been all along. The evidence in the Merriam-Webster files shows both forms to be used about equally. A few of the handbooks opine that lighted may be more frequent in adjectival use ("a clean, well-lighted place"), but even here our evidence shows about equal use of both forms. We have reputable citations for "a lit cigar" and "a lighted cigar" and "a lit window" and "a lighted window." The matter, then, is simply one of the author's preference—choose whichever sounds better in a given context. Lit seems to have been originally called into question by a grammarian—perhaps William Ward—who in 1765 opined that it was "rather low." His opinion must have been repeated with some frequency; in an anonymous American handbook of 1869 entitled Vulgarisms and Other Errors of Speech we find "'The gas is lit,' is often said, instead of, 'The gas is lighted.' The word lit may be used as a colloquialism, but it should not be written, unless in representing conversation." In spite of the fact that modern handbooks and dictionaries recognize both lit and lighted as standard, someone must be repeating the old condemnation, with the confusion of others as a result: • On the technical level, Joe is poorly shot, sloppily edited and miserably lit (lighted?) —Susan Rice, Media & Methods, October 1970 |
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