Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
There are certainly regional differences in English.
One of the most grating to British ears is the lack of a 'to' in sentences like "Write me soon."
(But I be surprised to find any current dictionary accepting weaved as an acceptable alternative to wove.)
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Merriam-Webster: wove \ˈwōv\ or weaved
There are two different historical verbs here. One is a weak verb from Old English
wefan, meaning "to braid or interlace strands". That verb had a typical OE ablaut ending (hence
wove).
The other is the Old Norse
veifa, to wave or brandish, which gives the sense of “to move from side to side” and was always a strong verb in English (hence
weaved).
So etymologically speaking, it should be “he wove a scarf on the loom” but “the car weaved through traffic”. But since the root of both is the same spelling “weave” in English (and the meanings are often blurred to the point of conflation—which one is used in “he weaved the thread in and out of the rings”?), the two have been used interchangeably for centuries, to the point that it's probably not right to call either usage wrong, linguistically.
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expounds.