Archaic Uses
Subjunctive verb forms were formerly used more widely in English than they are today. Cases of such usage can be encountered in samples of archaic or pseudo-archaic English, and in certain set expressions that have been preserved in the modern language.
Examples of subjunctive uses in archaic English:
- I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. (King James Bible, Genesis 32:26)
- Though he were dead, yet shall he live. (John 11:25)
- Murder, though it have no tongue, will speak. (Shakespeare, Hamlet)
Examples of set expressions that preserve archaic subjunctive uses:
- until death do us part or until death us do part (a part of certain marriage vows)
- far be it from (or for) me
- would that it were
- the powers that be
- albeit (a synthesis of all be it, i.e. although it be)
Some further examples can be found in the sections on usage above.
Read more about this topic: English Subjunctive
Famous quotes containing the word archaic:
“Almost always tradition is nothing but a record and a machine-made imitation of the habits that our ancestors created. The average conservative is a slave to the most incidental and trivial part of his forefathers’ glory—to the archaic formula which happened to express their genius or the eighteenth-century contrivance by which for a time it was served.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)