Comments on: National Grammar Day: Exploring Unbeknownst

By: Vincent

Vincent — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 14:44:58 +0000

The OED calls unbeknownst an adjective, but one of its illustrative quotations, from Agatha Christie in 1952, has this:
“One of those smart lads may have got out of the College buildings unbeknownst.” It is not the lads or the college buildings which are unbeknownst, but the action of getting out.

No “to” was needed, because the action was unbeknownst to everyone.

Most of the other quotations listed have the word followed by “to”, e.g. from 1982 this:

“A whole other wife and children all unbeknownst to Ackerley until after his father’s death.”

Here the sense is adjectival, not because of the “to” because unbeknownst here doesn’t refer to any stated action, but the (existence of) the wife and children – in any case nouns.

By: French Lady

French Lady — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 10:16:56 +0000

How about this sentence? What would you put instead of “unbeknownst”? In this case, Ryan is the one who does not know he is her soul mate — yet.

She begs Ryan, her unbeknownst soul mate, to fly to London, but before he arrives, she is kidnapped.

Thank you,

French Lady

By: BookGirl

BookGirl — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:19:07 +0000

Happy National Grammar Day! If you celebrate this great day, I encourage you to read this recent blog post by author/blogger Gina Barreca from The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Cut/paste link in your brower please:
http://chronicle.com/blogPost/10-Fewer-or-Less-/21470/

By: Dr. Moss

Dr. Moss — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:41:54 +0000

Ahem!!!!! Some of us (Well, I at least) were beginning to wonder if you had fallen off the face of the Earth. Maybe took a long trip and got lost in the swamp or something?

By: Casey

Casey — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:50:17 +0000

Thanks very much! I thought initially that this was spam but I checked your site and it looks not only legit, but very interesting! I’ve had so much work lately that I am behind on posting, but knowing I’m on a few feeds is certainly a good incentive.

By: BE

BE — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:10:29 +0000

Very nice post. I have added your RSS to my feeds.

By: Ms. Glimmerglass

Ms. Glimmerglass — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:41:21 +0000

and, by the way….
nice to see you back! I was getting tired of looking at that Swan thing.

By: Ms. Glimmerglass

Ms. Glimmerglass — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:39:05 +0000

Pretty cute, Ms. Butterfield. And, unbeknownst TO ME, the grammar police have been away on holiday, what with EVERYONE now saying “people that” instead of “people who.” Now THAT’S misbegot!