By "taking a turn", I'm not referring to your opportunity to shine during a game of poker, or your go at bankrupting your soon-to-be-estranged family over a game of Monopoly.
I am instead referring to the archaic phrase "to go for a stroll", that many will not have encountered since they last read or watched Pride and Prejudice (BBC dramatisation only, please!). Some may never have encountered it at all, such has it fallen out of modern usage.
Lizzie and Mr Darcy - taking a turn
I've been meaning to write about this phrase for a while now, since it came up in discussion at a wedding I attended last August. A friend there related that she found it quaint how the Spanish phrase she'd recently learnt - "dar una vuelta" - literally translated to "to take a turn" in English. At least, that's how I recall the conversation five months later - I may have actually indiscriminately butchered it in the interests of "linguistic journalism".
It occurred to me later that the Spanish aren't the only ones to take turns where us Anglophones would prefer a more specific walk or jog, or a more colloquial wander. French has an identical construct: "faire un tour". Notice their use of the word "tour" that we would more likely see in phrases such as "guided tour" or "world tour". It is the same word, with the same meaning...we have just bestowed it with more weight and specificity over time.
Do any languages you speak still use the same formula? What other examples do you know of phrases or words becoming archaic in one language, but still going strong in another? Leave a comment - I'd love to hear your examples!
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