Timeline for How a word, a phrase or an idiom currently considered informal turns to be standard or formal
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
17 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Oct 19 at 11:05 | 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. | |
| Jun 21 at 8:04 | 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. | |
| Feb 22 at 8:01 | 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. | |
| Oct 25, 2023 at 7:09 | comment | added | James K | This should have been migrated to ELU. | |
| Oct 25, 2023 at 7:04 | 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. | |
| Jun 25, 2023 at 6:06 | 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. | |
| Feb 25, 2023 at 4:10 | 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. | |
| Oct 26, 2022 at 15:07 | 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. | |
| Jun 20, 2022 at 9:38 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| Jun 21, 2022 at 17:00 | |||||
| Jun 20, 2022 at 9:00 | 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. | |
| May 21, 2022 at 8:32 | comment | added | Kate Bunting | Being used by Dickens doesn't automatically make an expression 'standard English'. Your link shows that the words are spoken by the character Uriah Heep; they are a representation of his way of talking, not part of the author's narrative. | |
| May 20, 2022 at 20:34 | comment | added | David Siegel | @James K I think an answer is quite possible, having given one, and I do not think it is opinion-based either. I urge you to retract your close vote. | |
| May 20, 2022 at 20:31 | answer | added | David Siegel | timeline score: 1 | |
| May 20, 2022 at 19:30 | review | Close votes | |||
| May 27, 2022 at 7:50 | |||||
| May 20, 2022 at 19:13 | comment | added | James K | There is nothing special about English in this respect. Phrases can be formal, and become informal. Or be informal and become more formal. Its more likely that phrases are just completely dropped than change register. However in this particular case there happens to be a rarity: a bit of slang that still is informal in modern English. Rare but not exceptional. I've voted to close, as I don't think an answer is possible here. | |
| May 20, 2022 at 18:00 | comment | added | stangdon | This may be out of scope for ELL. It's a very broad question - all languages evolve over time, driven by the millions of people who speak them. Part of your post makes me think there may be some confusion, though: "will this idiom always retain its initial status - informal? I was expecting such an idiom to become part and parcel of standard English after so many years of use..." Informal doesn't mean "not standard", it just means something like "casual, loose, relaxed, not adhering to strict rules." Something can be informal and still be very standard. | |
| May 20, 2022 at 17:49 | history | asked | enet | CC BY-SA 4.0 |