Trying to analyse the words "hang on" in a grammar text - all help greatly appreciated! It's in the context of hang on, we're not talking about that..... and I understand that 'hang' must be a verb but how can I label both words? 'On' is normally a preopositional right?

All help and suggestions greatly appreciated

James

Thanks! All seems a lot clearer now!

The OED is clearly just too modern! - "Thusly" is a good Biblical (Christian Bible) word.

It has the same meaning a "thus" (as far as I know). Sometimes, it just flows better.

I must say I'm fascinated by "thusly" !!

As RuthP already said, the word has much more drive and swing than a simple one-syllable 'thus'.

"thusly" doesn't go out of my mind. Briton has already answered one of my questions.
"thusly" seems to be understood and used both in AmE and BrE. And as Briton said it is more used in written language.
I wondered about the "values" of the word. Is there a humorous note to it - or has it some archaic value? In any case I found it such a funny word formation - the word jumped into my mind as if it were my most cherished pet.

What I find curious is that none of the big dictionaries has this word. I think even if a word is not considered as standard, such words should be booked.

Sometimes I am speechless about the way language/speakers express ideas - "ones" (as a prop word as in 'the good ones and the bad ones in the film') is such a thing. For a mathematican hard to understand that 'one' can have a plural -s.
But for language it's a natural and "logical", simply because it's practical.

English has dropped most endings - so English adjectives can't express singular or plural of adjectives any longer.
German can say: die Gute (speaking of a woman) or die Guten (speaking of people). But English has mastered this difficulty but inventing 'one' or 'ones' after an adjective.

I didn't want to want to spoil the fun of Ruth's statement that "thusly" had Biblical roots and was a legitimate word because it didn't seem to matter - Roger was just tickled pink with it anyway. The fact that Ruth was having a little joke was neither here nor there.

But now that Roger has done a little research and realised it is an informal/humourus word perhaps one should explain?

Sorry, Roger, but "Thusly" is a word in the tradition of the satiric words coined to poke fun at certain people's ways of speaking...just as the phrase 'casting nasturtiums' is used instead of 'casting aspersions'. I don't think it goes back any further than the second half of the 19th century but perhaps someone else knows exactly when it was first used?

Roger -

I think you would have enjoyed meeting my parents. Between the two of them they had an almost encyclopaedic knowledge of words/dialects/pidgins and word history etymologies and usages. Perhaps growing up with them was what influenced me to become a writer. But conversations in our house were always interesting and humorous and my father was an absolute wizard at constructing entire monologues, in appropriate dialects, from words/phrases such as those above, along with malapropisms and common mispronunciations.

I miss them so much. Along with all the laughter.

'old on!

I just realised what we are missing in this thread.

Where is our other German friend (the crout) IMcRout? I haven't heard anything from him in ages - he is an aficianado of word play and strange usages - thusly, he would be interested in this.

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Though lovers be lost, love shall not, and Death shall have no dominion. - Dylan Thomas

Ah, thank you, that explains everything.

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Though lovers be lost, love shall not, and Death shall have no dominion. - Dylan Thomas