7/47 It was "exceedingly common in the 16th-18th cent.," according to the New English Dict., which gives examples from Captain John Smith, Marlowe, and Defoe. An archaic form of "swoon," found in Elizabethan English. "Through" and "thorough" are originally the same word, and in Shakespeare's time both forms were used for the preposition.Cf. Puck's song in "Midsummer Night's Dream," "Thorough bush, thorough briar." 67--*eat*. This form (pronounced _et_) is still in use in England and New England for the past tense of the verb, though in America the form "ate" is now preferred. |