Timeline for Is "What say you?" the same as "what do you say"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| May 4, 2022 at 12:05 | history | bumped | CommunityBot | This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed. | |
| Mar 28, 2022 at 11:48 | comment | added | Michael Harvey | @KateBunting - I think "What say you?' might be an American usage in a legal context, as this example 'On the charges of first-degree murder, what say you?' - blog here - seems to suggest (British law does not have 'degrees' of murder). In general it is an archaic form used jocularly (e.g. 'I rather fancy a turn around the garden, Miss Bennett. What say you to that idea?' which probably seemed odd any time after about 1930. | |
| Mar 28, 2022 at 11:04 | answer | added | Astralbee | timeline score: 1 | |
| Mar 28, 2022 at 10:51 | comment | added | Kate Bunting | @MichaelHarvey - I'm sure you're right. Some references picked up by Google Ngrams did have "What say you?" in a legal context, though. | |
| Mar 28, 2022 at 9:40 | comment | added | Michael Harvey | @KateBunting I thought it was "How say you?", at least when it came to asking the jury for the verdict. I can promise you that they don't say it any more, having retired (this month) from the UK justice system. | |
| Mar 28, 2022 at 9:17 | comment | added | Kate Bunting | Searching for information on this phrase reminded me that it is traditionally used in a court of law when asking the defendant whether they plead guilty or not guilty, or asking the jury for their verdict. Perhaps for this reason it is still sometimes used in conversation instead of "What do you say?", although it is an old-fashioned usage. See this. | |
| Mar 28, 2022 at 8:27 | review | Close votes | |||
| Apr 11, 2022 at 16:56 | |||||
| Mar 28, 2022 at 8:11 | history | asked | kuwabara | CC BY-SA 4.0 |