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Chris -- 2018-04-11

#1 2008-08-26 13:23:31

DavidTuggy
Eggcornista
From: Mexico
Registered: 2007-10-11
Posts: 2713
Website

on end < ohne Ende

A German colleague brought up the suggestion that the phrase “on end” as in “days/weeks/years on end” comes from the German “ohne Ende” “without end”. The dropping of the final -e on the two German words would be quite normal. Otherwise it is a rather odd usage of the English preposition “on”.

Some eggcorn potential there. I think I had a picture of the days or years stacked on top of each other, end-to-end, so there would not be spaces between the top end of one and the bottom end of the next.

I didn’t find any confirmation in the tiny bit of googling I did that “on end” in fact does come from “ohne Ende”, however. Any of you able to confirm it?

And how have you all imaged/construed “for days on end”?


*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .

(Possible Corollary: it is, and we are .)

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#2 2008-08-26 14:09:04

patschwieterman
Administrator
From: California
Registered: 2005-10-25
Posts: 1680

Re: on end < ohne Ende

I had the same thought when I took high school German, and a friend of mine from a German-speaking family had come up with the idea independently—so there are probably lots of us. But the OED will have none of it. They list “on end” under “end,” and see the modern sense developing from an earlier sense, “at last,” that’s first cited in the late 12th century. But our target sense of “consecutively,” “uninteruptedly”—their sense b.)—doesn’t appear until the 17th C, and only a citation from the 19th C looks exactly like our target sense. Jeez, why don’t I just copy the entry? Duh….

17. on end (see also AN-END): a. at last; b. consecutively, without intermission; also right or straight on end: (a) consecutively, uninterruptedly; (b) immediately; c. on (one’s) way, forward, along; (whence to come on end, to come forward; (ME.) to set spell or tale on end, to begin a discourse); d. in an upright position, resting on (its) end.

a. c1175 Lamb. Hom. 25 Al swa he do swa e swica e bi-swike hine seolfe on-ende. c1320 Cast. Love 1064 at foreward on ende wel was i-holde. c1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 186, I drede on ende quat schulde byfalle.

b. 1634 RUTHERFORD Lett. No. 32 (1862) I. 111 And was brought, thrice on end, in remembrance of you in my prayer to God. [1778 Strait an end: see STRAIGHT adv. 2c.] 1836 in Byron’s Wks. (1846) 552/1 The ministerial prints raved for two months on end. 1837 T. HOOK Jack Brag i. 16 The fox going away right on-end across a heavy country. 1867 SMYTH Sailor’s Word-bk. 574 Right on end, in a continuous line; as the masts should be. 1882 BESANT All Sorts vii, Working sixteen hours on end at two~pence an hour. 1883 S. BARING-GOULD John Herring I. xi. 154, I be going to die right on end, I be.

c. c1340 Cursor M. (Trin.) 1295 Seeth set tale on ende [Cott. spell o-nend] And tolde whi he was sende. 1621 SANDERSON Serm. I. 188 These would be soundly spurred up, and whipped on end. 1630 Ibid. II. 266 Others will not come on end chearfully.

d. a1300 Cursor M. 25049 e cros..quen it es sett on end vp euen, It takens pes tuix erth and heuen. 1598 R. GRENEWEY Tacitus’ Descr. Germany vi. (1622) 269 The Sueuians..haue their hair standing on end. 1784 COWPER Task IV. 86 Katerfelto, with his hair on end At his own wonders. 1836 Random Recoll. Ho. Lords xvi. 383 His dark hair..stands on end on the fore part of his head. 1839 W. IRVING Wolfert’s R. (1855) 143 A great hotel in Paris is a street set on end.

So are they right? And could Deutsch have had an influence? That know I not.

Last edited by patschwieterman (2008-08-26 14:10:32)

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