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What language is this?

  • Mar. 7th, 2008 at 5:32 PM
Vanitas desk
owlfish
"Please provide us of any terms that have been agreed...."

I'm particularly interested in the use of the preposition "of" in this context. Is this legalese, or is it English English?

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( 36 comments — Leave a comment )
drplokta
Mar. 7th, 2008 05:33 pm (UTC)
It's not English English, and I doubt it's legalese. My suspicion would be that it's gibberish.
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hannahasoxe
Jul. 15th, 2008 01:30 am (UTC)
It's an English word now, and it's pronounced fort. I think it's from French (which wouldn't pronounce the final e without an accent mark), but I speak without access to a dictionary.
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sam_t
Mar. 7th, 2008 05:34 pm (UTC)
A missing 'with details' before the 'of'?
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steer
Mar. 7th, 2008 05:39 pm (UTC)
Typo or cut and paste error surely?
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owlfish
Mar. 7th, 2008 05:44 pm (UTC)
Maybe, but there are an awful lot of other hits for the phrase (180,000), even eliminating a lot of the hits on the grounds of omitted punctuation in search making it comprehensible.
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(no subject) - steer - Mar. 7th, 2008 05:45 pm (UTC) - Expand
(no subject) - owlfish - Mar. 7th, 2008 05:47 pm (UTC) - Expand
(no subject) - steer - Mar. 7th, 2008 05:54 pm (UTC) - Expand
(no subject) - owlfish - Mar. 7th, 2008 05:59 pm (UTC) - Expand
(no subject) - colleenyligo - Jul. 13th, 2008 10:08 am (UTC) - Expand
(no subject) - steer - Jul. 13th, 2008 08:34 pm (UTC) - Expand
(no subject) - owlfish - Jul. 13th, 2008 09:47 pm (UTC) - Expand
(no subject) - steer - Jul. 16th, 2008 08:10 am (UTC) - Expand
strange_complex
Mar. 7th, 2008 05:40 pm (UTC)
I think it's just a confusion between 'please advise us of...' and 'please provide us with...' Either the author just didn't really know which they wanted in the first place, or they tried at some point to re-edit the sentence from one to the other, and didn't manage to make all the necessary changes.
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owlfish
Mar. 7th, 2008 05:46 pm (UTC)
That's a logical explanation, especially for why it seems to happen so frequently. It does seem to be a fairly frequently used phrase, based on initial Google results (even ignoring all of the "provide us. Of..." instances cluttering up the results).
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(no subject) - haggisthesecond - Mar. 7th, 2008 09:02 pm (UTC) - Expand
justinsomnia
Mar. 7th, 2008 05:40 pm (UTC)
I say typo.
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owlfish
Mar. 7th, 2008 05:51 pm (UTC)
I love the OED - it has "provide...of" as something even better than typo - it has it as Obsolete.
10. trans. To supply (a person, animal, place, etc.) with something. Freq. in pass.

a. With of. Obs.

c1485 (1456) G. HAY Bk. Knychthede (1914) 102 And se that thou ger thy providouris..be ay..providit of cornis and othir provisiouns nedefull. 1547 A. BORDE Introd. Knowl. (1870) xiv. 160 Howbeit the good townes be prouyded of vitels. 1556 tr. J. de Flores Histoire de Aurelio & Isabelle sig. P8, Prouyde you of trew contricion and patience. 1577 B. GOOGE tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husb. f. 129, You must prouide them of warme pastures for the winter, and in sommer, very coole. 1615 W. LAWSON New Orchard & Garden (1668) III. i. 1 Whosoever desireth..to have a pleasant and profitable Orchard, must provide himself of a fruiterer..Skilful in that faculty. 1657 W. RAND tr. P. Gassendi Mirrour of Nobility I. 172 Viassius..providing him of a ship, sent him away. 1671 J. CARYLL Sir Salomon V. 84 I'm already provided of a wiser Governor then your Worship. 1723 E. CHAMBERS tr. S. Le Clerc Treat. Archit. I. 142 When an Architect is not provided of an able Painter fit to manage a Work of this kind. 1729 J. MORGAN Compl. Hist. Algiers II. iv. 260 Provided of all requisite Entertainment for at least a Twelvemonth. 1819 SCOTT Legend of Montrose p. xv. in Waverley Novels XV., Being provided of more [boots] of the same kind, I made myselfe reddie, and rode to the head-quarters.
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(no subject) - steer - Mar. 7th, 2008 05:56 pm (UTC) - Expand
retsuko
Mar. 7th, 2008 05:42 pm (UTC)
I'm in the midst of studying legalese, and I'd say this is a typo, rather than any legal term.

And, yeah, what?!
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gillo
Mar. 7th, 2008 05:48 pm (UTC)
As a mere English teacher of English, I would categorise it as Bad English.
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owlfish
Mar. 7th, 2008 06:47 pm (UTC)
Or more excitingly, we can call it obsolete English.

You're a professional categorizer of English! That's no "mere"!
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(no subject) - gillo - Mar. 7th, 2008 08:58 pm (UTC) - Expand
(no subject) - targaff - Mar. 7th, 2008 09:44 pm (UTC) - Expand
(no subject) - targaff - Mar. 7th, 2008 09:52 pm (UTC) - Expand
targaff
Mar. 7th, 2008 05:51 pm (UTC)
Definitely not legalese. Talking of context, where did it crop up? Looking at the said 180,000 hits the vast majority seem to be examples where "with" would be correct, so I suspect typo. Moreover, if you tell it to remove any example of "provide us of course" it only gives you 242 hits.

Also if you search for "please provide us of" there are actually only 13 hits (even if Google says there are 28,000 or so), one of which is this post...
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owlfish
Mar. 7th, 2008 05:54 pm (UTC)
Thank you for a more careful search than mine. Due diligence and all.

It cropped up in a form I received from our brand-new solicitors. I had to copy it down before returning the form, it was so striking.
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(no subject) - targaff - Mar. 7th, 2008 09:53 pm (UTC) - Expand
(no subject) - owlfish - Mar. 7th, 2008 06:03 pm (UTC) - Expand
(no subject) - targaff - Mar. 7th, 2008 06:12 pm (UTC) - Expand
(no subject) - owlfish - Mar. 7th, 2008 06:17 pm (UTC) - Expand
(no subject) - targaff - Mar. 7th, 2008 06:30 pm (UTC) - Expand
daisho
Mar. 7th, 2008 08:38 pm (UTC)
It is silly. Nothing more. :)
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sollersuk
Mar. 7th, 2008 09:13 pm (UTC)
UK: it's bad English. "Provide" should always be followed by "with".
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sammywol
Mar. 7th, 2008 11:27 pm (UTC)
It is possibly along the lines of 'Treat of ...' which I have never seen outside of an exam paper.
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calindy
Mar. 8th, 2008 06:12 am (UTC)
I can always count on you to provide an interesting string of comments for me to read. :)

Have a wonderful weekend.
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( 36 comments — Leave a comment )