2939 Regression To The Ridiculous.
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In panel one Bridgette says “It’s all I had to hand.” As a Kansas native I use phrases unique to that area, but also to my family, which is a mix of northern and southern American. I’m not sure which group can claim “to hand”. I assume that it’s a Kansas thing because people outside my family used the phrase, but my family also tends to influence others in our sphere by strength of personality. I’m curious if you have heard this phrase where you are, and where you are that you heard it. “At hand”, “on hand”, “in hand”, are all potential regional variations of the same meaning. When spoken Kansans tend to actually pronounce “to hand” as “tuh hand”. It’s possible that the tuh sound is a shortening of some other word and it’s been transliterated to “to” via the more clear manner of speaking my northern relations tend to have. I couldn’t say for sure.
In any case I hope your Wednesday finds you safe and alive. Try to stay that way at least until we can meet again on Friday. As always, if you have the means, i would appreciate it if you would peruse the support links I have left above the blog. Until we meet again, add an extra topping, as a treat.
5 Comments
What’s better than one Alex in a comic panel?
Oh, I know!
TWO Alexes in a comic panel!
I’m from Canada and the standard phrasing I’ve always heard, everywhere in the world (not just Canada) is “on hand.” “At hand” in certain contexts, like “the time is at hand,” but that might be only usable for time-related things. Been a few years since I’ve studied linguistics properly, now I’m curious…
I’m Australian, and ‘to hand’ and ‘on hand’ both sound perfectly idiomatic to me.
I generally prefer “to hand” over “at hand,” at least when referring to available resources, but I don’t believe it’s a regionalism or picked up from my parents so much as osmosed from an abundance of fantasy literature that happened to also favor it. Whether that indicates that it’s widespread or that the fantasy novels of the 20th century were something of an incestuous community, I daren’t speculate.
I routinely use that phrase here in the UK