LANGUAGE CORNER
Borne Out, with an ‘E’
Born to be Borne, or Vice Versa
It may have been just a typo, but it pops up from time to time: "Such reports seem born out by help-wanted advertising..." The correct spelling is "borne," with an "e." It's one of two past participles of "to bear," meaning (a) to give birth or (b) to carry. The one without the "e" is used for actual or figurative birth: a star is born, to a born loser; things are born of necessity or desperation; children are born out of wedlock. For everything else, including the cited form of "bear out," meaning to prove or confirm, add the "e." The star was borne by her unfortunate mother.
Addendum, July 15, 1998:
Dr. Denny Wilkins, assistant professor in St. Bonaventure University's
School of Journalism and Mass Communcation, e-mailed to say he
found that last sentence confusing, and that's not surprising.
"Does the sentence mean," he asked, "The star was
'proven' or 'confirmed' by her unfortunate mother?" No, it
means the star was carried (to birth, as it happens) by her mother,
but the effort to be cute obviously led to unfortunate misunderstanding.
Addendum, April 7, 1999:
This was just exactly wrong: "But the brunt of the evening's
jokes were born by the President and the other major impeachment
figures..." Our word has nothing to do with birth; it has
to do with carrying (a burden). The choice had to be "borne."
(And, incidentally, the little verb should have been "was."
All the jokes weren't borne by the president, only the brunt of
them, so "jokes" can't take command of the sentence.)
Addendum, Dec. 19, 2000:
And finally — Some people, the article said, "harbor
anti-Semitic attitudes borne of years of conflict." The writer
and editor didn't want that "e"; those attitudes were
born of — they arose from, were given birth to by —
those years of conflict. (The immortal H.W. Fowler's analogous
citation was "The melancholy born of solitude.")
