Tuesday, November 5, 2019
Wishing You Well
Wishing You Well Wishing You Well Wishing You Well By Maeve Maddox A reader has written to express her astonishment at the following usage in an office memo: Please come to the Open House to give [so-and-so] your well-wishes in person. Where, wonders the reader, did the person who wrote the memo get the expression ââ¬Å"well-wishesâ⬠? Thought I, ââ¬Å"Where indeed?â⬠My first move was to do a Web search to see how common this use of well-wishes might be. First I searched ââ¬Å"well wishesâ⬠in quotations. Results: about 1,290,000. I found numerous examples on entertainment and sports sites: Seinfeld cast sends well-wishes to terminally ill fan Reese Witherspoon Sends Well Wishes to Newlywed Sofia Veragara NFL Players send prayers, well-wishes to Rams receiver Stedman Bailey after shooting Rutgers coach Kyle Flood sends well-wishes to Minnesotas Jerry Kill No surprise there, I thought. People who write about sports and entertainment are not always models of standard usage. Letââ¬â¢s see if I can find examples in sources noted for more formal usage: The London Telegraph: Jubilee concert goers send well wishes to Prince Philip A Vancouver hospital: Sendà well wishesà by email to your friend or family member staying in one of our hospitals below. The Wall Street Journal: Firms across the world have begun the time-honored tradition of sending well wishes and gifts to their investors. The New York Times: à Entering an election year with the well wishes of both parties, Mr. Ryan will not be pushing legislation simply to send a message of ardent conservatism. Hmm. This, I saw, was a case for my two dictionaries. Merriam-Webster Unabridged well-wish noun: a good or kindly wish Oxford English Dictionary well wish noun: An instance of wishing well to someone or something; an expression of this, a good wish. The earliest OED citation is dated 1595. The most recent is from a biography of Lincoln published in 2009: ââ¬Å"His return was not greeted with the well wishes of the press and public with which he had left for Washington.â⬠No doubt about it, the forms well wishes and well-wishes are regarded as standard British and American usage. Although- in defense of the readerââ¬â¢s feelings and my own- the OED notes that well wishes is ââ¬Å"now less common than best or good wishes.â⬠Further, a comparison search of ââ¬Å"well wishesâ⬠and ââ¬Å"good wishesâ⬠on the Ngram Viewer shows well wishes hugging the bottom of the graph. Bottom line: Although well-wishes sounds nonstandard to me and I wonââ¬â¢t use it, I cannot criticize its use in the memos or headlines of others. Oddly enough, ââ¬Å"well wishesâ⬠strikes me as unidiomatic, but ââ¬Å"get well wishesâ⬠does not. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:English Grammar 101: All You Need to KnowOn Behalf Of vs. In Behalf Of15 Names and Descriptions of Effects
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