MetaChat - what's up my beautiful people

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06 September 2010

what's up my beautiful people So I'm glancing at this transcript of a speech by JK Rowling alright, check out this sentence: "Such knowledge is a true gift, for all that it is painfully won, and it has been worth more to me than any qualification I ever earned."→[More:]

It's a very agile use of the word "for", kinda reminds me of e.g. "can't see the forest for the trees". Do you think it's a mistake in talking (she kinda hesitates after saying 'gift') or she's saying, "it's painfully won because it's a great gift", or what?

post by: Firas at: 02:45 | 7 comments

It's a kind of set phrase: "for all that it is..." meaning "even though it is" - i.e. even though it was painful to acquire this knowledge, it is nonetheless valuable.

It might be a specifically British thing to say - I'd be interested to hear whether US Metachat people are familiar with it.

posted by altolinguistic 06 September | 03:46

Doesn't bother me. I don't think it's common usage in the US, but I've heard people use it, usually when they're speechifying.

posted by gc 06 September | 03:54

Ah I see. "For" as 'despite' or 'even though'.. kinda rings a bell as in "and for all that"..

posted by Firas 06 September | 04:08

It's very formal language, but I didn't have to read it twice to understand it. I don't think many people would use it in everyday conversation, but as upmarket discourse, it works.

posted by Stewriffic 06 September | 06:42

Looks completely normal to me, I guess especially with my British-English background. I like the usage too, sounds nice.

posted by gaspode 06 September | 08:32

here in the US, we'd probably say, "although painfully won, and worth more to me . . "

posted by bearwife 08 September | 19:22

It's British English.

posted by coaticass 08 September | 23:37

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