RE: "Each and Every" and "Whether or Not"

[Stuart Burnfield <slb -at- westnet -dot- com -dot- au>]

David Crystal has this to say in his excellent book, 'The Stories of 
English' (pub. Allen Lane, 2004):

"As the profession of the law became regularized during the thirteenth 
century, French replaced Latin as the primary language of legal 
expression... Then , during the fifteenth century, law French was 
gradually replaced by law English.
...
The problem was: how can tradition be respected yet precision maintained 
when there are three languages competing for attention?
...
The solution, in many cases, was: don't choose; use both. In Middle 
English we see the rise of the legal lexical doublets which would become 
one of the stylistic hallmarks of that profession. Old English _goods_ 
and Old English _chattels_ resulted in Middle English legalese _goods 
and chattels_."

Crystal gives examples of such doublets (fit and proper; acknowledge and 
confess) and triplets (give, devise, and bequeath; right, title, and 
interest) and goes on to say:

"And it was not long before the habit of doubling became extended to 
pairs of words regardless of their language of origin... In _have and 
hold_, _let or hindrance_, and _each and every_, English words are 
together."

Stuart
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