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I am a newly addicted listener to "A Way with Words", so please pardon me if this is an old topic.
English is not my first language but my favorite, and after living in the U.S. for decades, I am reasonably comfortable with the
language. However, when it comes to the words "aboard" and "abroad", I have a mental block, tending to mix them up.
Is there a good way to remember how to use these two words appropriately?
Thanks.
mlliu2006 said
I am a newly addicted listener to "A Way with Words", so please pardon me if this is an old topic.
English is not my first language but my favorite, and after living in the U.S. for decades, I am reasonably comfortable with the
language. However, when it comes to the words "aboard" and "abroad", I have a mental block, tending to mix them up.Is there a good way to remember how to use these two words appropriately?
Thanks.
In the old days, you walked up a board (gang plank) to get on a ship to take you across a broad ocean. (This is the best I can do on short notice. I hope it helps.)
In South Pacific, Nellie sings
"My doll is as dainty as a sparrow,
Her figure is somethin' to applaud.
Where she's narrow she's as narrow an arrow,
And she's broad where a broad should be broad."
A where should a btoad be broad? Next to me, not abroad!
I think of aboard as "on board" - standing on planks, and abroad as being across a broad ocean - just as Nellie was.
Welcome Milli, and confounding words means that you can say you "speak English like a native!" You might enjoy "slip Mahoney" (Leo Gorcey) in the old Bowery Boys / Dead End Kids movies. Amazon offers a lot of them for free to Prime members.
mlliu2006, "abroad" has to do with broadness, breadth, that is, width: the first definition for it in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary is "over a wide area: at large," for instance, "The disease is spreading abroad." From this comes the idea of being "out and about," traveling around, whether away from one's home or away from one's country (as it is most commonly used today).
"Aboard" originally had to do with being next to the boards or sides of a ship (according to Webster's), and then came to mean being on the ship ("on board"). When railroads and cars and buses were invented, it was extended to them (hence the old-fashioned train conductor's cry "All aboard!" to let the passengers know it was time to get on before the train left). "On board" (though not usually "aboard") can also mean "in agreement with or participating in" a plan, project etc.: "Everyone is on board with this except Bill."
I sometimes find etymology helpful in understanding word distinctions, though of course (especially in English!) it isn't always useful. I hope this is some help to you.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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