“England and America are two countries divided by a common language.”
Someone famous said this (it is disputed which famous person it is correctly attributed to) and the longer I live in England the more I realize that it is true. ((sigh)) So true…
As I was preparing for worship the other day I came across a prayer of confession which had the refrain…
Forgive us and quieten us with your humble love.
Quiten??? My first thoughts were, “no seriously, what is the refrain… it can’t really be that… quieten isn’t real word”. However, curiosity got the best of me; I looked it up and much to my surprise actually found it listed in the dictionary. This is what it said…
qui·et·en [kwahy-i-tn] Chiefly British
–verb (used without object)
1. to become quiet (often fol. by down). –verb (used with object)
2. to make quiet.
]I also asked a few colleagues and, along with the dictionary, they assured me that it really is a word. Why it is a word I don’t know! I think that it would be just as good to use the nice, simple and easily understood word quiet. Seems to me that the meaning would be the same.
Just to clarify, despite the impression this rant gives, as a dedicated minister in a cross-cultural setting I went ahead-trusting my sources-and used the refrain as I found it with the word quieten. I am pleased to report that it went well, no one was aware of my doubts, and I wasn’t accused of using a worship service to lead anyone down the dark path towards grammatical anarchy.
