Saturday, 1 January 2011

Word: Jan 1st - excepting

I've come across this word a lot lately thanks to reading the epic Sympathy for the Devil fanfiction by tromana (which you should read if you have some spare time). I kept seeing it there on the page and I knew it wasn't right, well, not wrong. I simply mean unfamiliar to me. It appealed to me though, in the same way words for reverie do.

Which is my reason for my word of the day being: excepting.

ex-cept-ing

Prep. With the exception of.
Conj. Except.

(The American Heritage Dictionary)

excepting

Prep. Excluding; except; except for (esp in the phrase not excepting).
Conj. An archaic word for unless.
Usage: The word of excepting is considered by many people to be acceptable only after not, only, or without. Elsewhere except is preferred.

My understanding of the word is that a sentence structured as "He was well again except a slight pain in his chest" cannot have except exchanged for excepting.

However, the sentence can be restructured so that it reads "Excepting a slight pain in his chest, he was well again."

I'm already excited to put this word into practice.

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