What is the difference if "a" is dropped from whaling?
If there isn't a huge difference, then would "I am going a-swiming" be ok too?
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It's old-fashioned to have the "a-". There may be some varieties of English in the UK or Ireland where older people still use it, but it's very rare, mostly just in old songs now– gotube ♦Aug 9, 2022 at 0:33
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2 Answers
I cannot find a suitable derivation or definition, but the addition of "a" in front of a gerund does not change the meaning. It is more common to find it in songs and poems than everyday use.
For example the nursery rhyme "I Saw A Ship A Sailing, A Sailing On The Sea". which means exactly the same as "I Saw A Ship Sailing, Sailing On The Sea" but may be thought to sound more pleasing or fit in with the metre.
answered Aug 9, 2022 at 0:46
This form of a- apparently comes from Middle English prefix meaning “up”, “out”, or “away”, and was used to produce new verbs like arise and await and secondarily to signal intensified action.
It isn’t used much any more, the most recent new coinage I can think of is in the carol “Here We Come A-wassailing” — wassailing being the Christmastime activities of going door-to-door singing carols until paid, typically in wassail (a form of cider), to go away — and that is barely as old as the 1851 novel quoted.
Making up your own a- verbs would be understood, but seen as humor or sarcasm, if that’s a problem.
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Not a new coinage - Wikipedia says it dates at least from the mid-19th century but is probably much older. Aug 9, 2022 at 8:01