Welcome to Gaia! ::

Topic: Manner & manor

This Inauguration Day we're looking at a phrase which has given more than one correspondent pause. The phrase? To the manner born. When we used that term on a recent program, we received a number of inquiries from folks who read the transcript and wanted to correct us about the spelling of manner. "To the manner born," they said, "takes the manor spelled manor, not manner." Not necessarily.

At least, that's not the spelling or word intended by William Shakespeare when he coined that phrase. The expression originates in Hamlet, when that title character explains a custom to his friend Horatio with the observation "but to my mind—though I am native here and to the manner born—it is a custom more honored in the breach than the observance."

Shakespeare's to the manner born meant "accustomed to a practice from birth." The term caught on, and it now has a well-established sense meaning "fitted by, or as if by birth or rearing to a particular role, position, or status." But an online search reveals that to the manor born—spelled manor—is far more common than Shakespeare's version. So is one phrasing correct and the other incorrect? Again, not necessarily.

The newer manor phrase has a different meaning: "born into circumstances of wealth and privilege." So our lexicon is lucky enough to count two phrases with slightly different senses. We suspect, by the way, that we should have used manor.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.