Help me out. Glide is a graceful word, but in the past tense glided is particularly ugly. Glid? Glode? I could substitute floated, and in my context I could even use slid (see glid), but glide is the right word. Or it would be if the past tense didn’t have two abrupt stops in it that undermine the meaning of the word. The word serves as the antithesis of its own definition.
Here we have one of the hallmarks of English, its strength and weakness all in one, that rules are made to be broken. Yet we have a case where an irregular conjugation would vastly improve the word. How could Shakespeare’s inventive tongue ever have allowed glided to happen?
I glod across the icy surface…?
He glit through the refrigerated car…
OOOoohhhh so close 54,998, just give it to me!
Dizzy Dean used the word “slud” as past tense of slide (as in base running)–He slud into third. But glud sounds even worse!
Perhaps Shakespeare needed those extra unaccented syllables to fill in his iambs? Or, he might have writ “did glide”?
Will “was gliding” work?
MOH55K1 is a squirrel seeker from Bennington, VT.
Speaking of MOHs, I have a couple of holidays to propose. There are twoth weeks to go until the twoth year anniversary of the invention of the MOH office. Consequently, I nominate Nov 23rd as “Mr7K day”. (The ironic juxtaposition of such a self serving suggestion and Thanksgiving is too much to pass up.)
My second suggestion is that Nov 16th be known as “crystals feet sex link day” in recognition of Keith starting the comment thread.
P.S.: I reread John’s acceptance posts, and they still strike my as hilarious.
This morning I was contemplating the use of ‘glade’. I like it because it also throws in a bit of the ambiguity of English that we all love.
And it’s great for fantasy novels: “I remembered with fondness the days I spent sharpening mine axe as it glade smoothly through his skullbone”
was gliging: nope. Needed the past perfect. I ended up using ‘whispered’. I was an automotive context, on an empty highway at twilight. It worked out pretty well.
Glade is a decent alternative, especially in the context of skullbones.
Hang gliding
See now that is just plain nuts.
Past tense of Glide: Glied.