OFF: "gotten"?

[Paul Mather]

(Yes, even *I* am drawn inexorably into this most erudite of debates...)

On Wed, 21 May 1997, Dave Berry wrote:

> On 21 May 01:14, Carl Edlund Anderson wrote:
> >     I think even in the UK one can say sentances like "We have gotten
> > completely pissed every day this week".  ;)   Or, on a more sober note ;)
> > "We've not gotten paid for the work I did."
>
> I've never heard "gotten" used in the UK.

I have only ever heard it used by americans.  Personally, I think it is
uniquely an americanism, along with such oddly grammatical phrases as "off
of" to which americans are prone in their patois (e.g. "I have just gotten
a kewl RealAudio clip off of John Swartz's WWW site!!!!!";).

When I was a lad at school, I remember my English teacher always
deprecated the use of "got."  She always made us use an appropriate
synonym instead.

Appended below is the OED's thoughts on the matter.  Apparently, they
consider "got" and "gotten" rare.

Cheers,

Paul.

obCD: The Brain Surgeons, _Box of Hammers_

e-mail: paul at csgrad.cs.vt.edu                    A stranger in a strange land.


   The Oxford English Dictionary, 2d edition

   at the Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia

   Usage is restricted to the VIVA Consortium.
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   gotten go.t'n, ppl. a. Forms: see get v.; also got ppl. a. [pa. pple.
   of get v.]
   1. Obtained, acquired, won (chiefly with accompanying adverb). Now
   rare, exc. in ill-gotten.

     C. 1340 Cursor M. 4913 (Trin.) We haue wiþ vs trussed nou3t But
     þing þat we truly bou3t And so is oure trewe geten þing;

     C. 1380 Wyclif Sel. Wks. III. 302 Sathanas..to whom þei maken
     sacrifice and omage for þis falsly geten lordischip;

     1477 Earl Rivers (Caxton) Dictes 64 Pouertee is better than euyl
     goten richesse.

     1548 Hall Chron., Edw. IV, 231 The gain of the nyne gotten
     battailes.

     1580 Sidney Ps. x. iii, This gotten blisse, shall never part.

     1603 Knolles Hist. Turks (1621) 59 Three or foure yeeres passed in
     great quietnesse, to the great strengthening of him in those new
     gotten kingdomes.

     1665 Manley Grotius' Low C. Warres 265 They should not endanger
     their gotten Honour.

     1715-20 Pope Iliad x. 596 Haste to the ships, the gotten spoil
     enjoy.

     1820 Chalmers Congreg. Serm. (1838) II. 54 He is apt to be
     satisfied with the triumphs of his gotten victory.

     1894 Gladstone Horace's Odes 36 On gotten goods to live Contented.


   2. = begotten 2. Obs.

     C. 1400 Gamelyn 365 Of my body heire geten haue I none.

     C. 1410 Love Bonavent. Mirr. vi. (Gibbs MS.), His furst geten sone.

     A. 1637 B. Jonson Elegy on Lady Digby, Iesus, the only gotten
     Christ!


   3. gotten-up = got-up (got ppl. a. b). U.S.

     1931 O. Nash Hard Lines 47 In a tastily gotten-up flat.

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   got got, ppl. a. [Shortened pa. pple. of get v.: see gotten.] Gained,
   acquired; gathered as a crop (see the verb). Now only with adv.
   prefixed, as ill got, well got.

     1593-1753 [see ill-got].

     1613-16 W. Browne Brit. Past. ii. iv. 80 Fate drew them on to be A
     greater Fame to our got Victory.

     1806 Fessenden Democr. II. 142 Provided he can save himself
     Together with his ill got pelf.

     1852 Jrnl. R. Agric. Soc. XIII. ii. 296 The value of well-got hay
     is duly appreciated.


   b. Comb. with advs.:

   got-at (see get v. 38 a, b);

   got-up, artificially produced, elaborated, or adorned, for purposes of
   effect or deception (see get v. 80 l, m); also, +(well) equipped in a
   subject..

     1818 Lady Morgan Autobiog. (1859) 199 He snubbed me..for exposing
     my ignorance to these well got-up Doctrinaires.

     1826 R. H. Froude Remains (1838) I. 86, I believe it to be..a
     got-up business for effect.

     1841 L. S. Costello Pilgr. Auvergne I. 336 Plaited collars and
     delicately got-up linen.

     1855 Smedley Coverdale xviii, Such follies are very well for got up
     puppies.

     1871 Earle Philol. Eng. Tongue 217 The symbolics in Greek have
     grown spontaneously, while their Latin analogues have a got-up and
     cultivated look.

     1871 Geo. Eliot Middlemarch i. xii, Stuff and nonsense! I don't
     believe a word of it. It's all a got-up story.

     1880 Daily Tel. 3 Dec., The principal publishing houses prepare
     magnificently got-up books which are works of art in themselves.

     1883 Times (weekly ed.) 28 Dec. 6/4 Some days after this little
     got-up play, which seemed to have produced the desired effect.

     1891 Sat. Rev. 12 Sept. 313/1 The abundance of easily-got-at
     material.

   Hence

   got-up sb. colloq., an upstart.

     1881 Macm. Mag. XLIV. 383 How dare that `got-up' give himself airs
     with his horses and dogs!

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