As a pendant to my recent post on historical linguistics, here's a charming epigram by the 17th-century poet Jacques de Cailly (also known anagrammatically as d'Aceilly):
Les Dérivations('[The Spanish word] alfana comes from [Latin] equus, no doubt, but one must admit that in getting from there to here it has changed quite a bit along the way.' The alleged derivation, proposed by Gilles Ménage, is of course entirely spurious.) Posted by languagehat at October 1, 2004 01:45 AMAlfana vient d'equus sans doute,
Mais il faut avouer aussi
Qu'en venant de là jusqu'ici
Il a bien changé sur la route.
I was taught that sans doute meant 'probably'. 'No doubt' is sans aucune doute. This rather changes the meaning of the poem...
Posted by: David at October 1, 2004 12:13 PMInteresting point, but of course one would have to check on what the phrase meant in the 17th century, which I don't have the resources to do at the moment. Anybody have access to a historical dictionary, or know from personal immersion in texts of the period?
Posted by: language hat at October 2, 2004 12:31 PMThe Robert says "sans doute" is the older equivalent of the modern "sans aucun doute", meaning "certainement".
Posted by: Marco at October 4, 2004 12:16 AMThanks!
Posted by: language hat at October 4, 2004 07:37 AM