in durance vile

[jesson cui]

as you can see in the title, "durance" is a noun, and "vile" is an adjective. why does this adjective endue after the noun. is it just the same with the phrase "something wrong"? and it will be appreciated if someone can tell me the derivation of this phrase. many thanks.

[Soup]

"In durance vile" is a very old way of saying "in jail." Imprisoned.

Although "durance" is today considered an archaic term and its roots are even older, its linguistic cousins, words such as "endure," "duration," "durable" and even "during," are staples of modern English. All these words hark back to the Latin "durus," which originally meant "hard" but also had the extended meaning of "lasting," and "durance," which first appeared in English in the 15th century, originally meant "duration" or "length of existence." The "imprisonment" sense of "durance" developed in the 16th century and referred to the length of the sentence a prisoner had to serve.

The "vile" in "durance vile" is our modern word, meaning "low, despicable, contemptible, depraved" and similar unpleasant things. "Vile" comes from the Latin "vilem," which meant "cheap, of low value or quality," and this was one of its original meanings when it entered English around 1290.

Source Columns Posted 04-26-01

NOUN: Confinement or restraint by force; imprisonment: “There should be a durance vile for justices who use an argument as weak as the one the majority used” (George F. Will).

durance. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

[Soup]

Adjectives can come after the noun without a linking verb, usually after pronouns "something USEFUL" and also in "Governor GENERAL"-type expressions.

Source Adjective - UniLang Wiki




Sometimes an adjective does occur immediately after a noun, especially in certain institutionalised expressions:

• 
  
  • the Governor General
    the Princess Royal
    times past

We refer to these as POSTPOSITIVE adjectives. Postposition is obligatory when the adjective modifies a pronoun:

• 
  
  • something useful
    everyone present
    those responsible

Postpositive adjectives are commonly found together with superlative, attributive adjectives:

• 
  
  • the shortest route possible
    the worst conditions imaginable
    the best hotel available

Source Postpositive Adjectives @ The Internet Grammar of English

Learn more about post-positive adjectives here postpositive adjectives - Google Search

[vil]

Hi Soup,

In my humble opinion your interpretation “in jail” sounds very softly and ordinarily. I offer to your attention one more adequate interpretation namely “in durance vile = in the gloomy dungeon”.

Regards.

V.

[BobK]

As for the word order, the position of adjectives in English used not to be as (relatively) fixed as it is now - especially in Scotland (where Rabbie Burns lived - possibly the earliest attested user of the phrase, in the line "In durance vile here must I wake and weep....". Scotland had stong ties with France (where the battle of the word orders - as attested by pairs like Châteauneuf/Neuchâtel - had been decided earlier).

b

[Soup]

Hi Soup,

In my humble opinion your interpretation “in jail” sounds very softly and ordinarily. I offer to your attention one more adequate interpretation namely “in durance vile = in the gloomy dungeon”.

Regards.

V.

Did you miss the bottom of post #2?

[vil]

Hi Soup,

Sorry. My attention was preoccupied from the opening statement in your original post namely from the brief and casual definition “in jail” (imprisoned) which imagined to me as a definition in an unfinished state.

I beg your apology for my impulsiveness as well as for my bad habit to scratch the surface of the things.

Regards.

V.