Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

You're absolutely correct. "Try and . . ." is almost always incorrect. For example, "I wanted to try and play tennis," suggests two different actions: to try and to play tennis. To try to play tennis suggests the act of attempting to play tennis, which would seem to be the point of the statement. To "try and . . ." is grammatical only if the "trying" and the "doing" should be noted as different actions, which, in most cases, they should not be.

I have no issue with try and. I find it in respectable writing in art, academia, and science: (Emphases in the quotes are mine.)

Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
161. Epigram Addressed to an Artist

DEAR ———, I'll gie ye some advice,
You'll tak it no uncivil:
You shouldna paint at angels mair,
But try and paint the devil.

To paint an Angel's kittle wark, 5
Wi' Nick, there's little danger:
You'll easy draw a lang-kent face,
But no sae weel a stranger.—R. B.

William Makepeace Thackeray. (1811–1863). Vanity Fair. [Thackeray employs this construction often.]
XIX. Sunday after the Battle

…
Poor Rawdon took up the paper and began to try and read it until his brother should arrive.
…

The Forces of Matter, Delivered before a Juvenile Auditory at the Royal Institution of Great Britain during the Christmas Holidays of 1859–60
Lecture VI.—The Correlation of the Physical Forces

Michael Faraday

…
But we have other and deeper relations than these; we have not merely to see how it is that one power affects another—how the force of heat affects chemical affinity, and so forth, but we must try and comprehend what relation they bear to each other, and how these powers may be changed one into the other; and it will to-day require all my care, and your care too, to make this clear to your minds.
…

George Eliot. (1819–1880). The Mill on the Floss.
Book VI—The Great Temptation
X. The Spell Seems Broken

…
But at length the music wrought in her young limbs, and the longing came; even though it was the horrible young Torry, who walked up a second time to try and persuade her.
…

Henry James. (1843–1916). The Portrait of a Lady.
Chapter IX

…
“I mean to try and imitate them,” said Isabel.
…

Glenn said:

I have no issue with try and. I find it in respectable writing in art, academia, and science: (Emphases in the quotes are mine.)

I don't dispute its respectability, I just can't make sense of it. It has great credentials, but to my ear it sounds lazy and imprecise, and, well, wrong, and has since my childhood. It's my problem, and I have to deal with it. I do my best to avoid "correcting" anyone who uses it,but when I hear it or read it it always snaps me out of the context and into a scenario like;

JUNIOR: Dad says I have to try and do my homework before dinner.
FRIEND: So, what are you doing?
JUNIOR: Trying and do my homework.

Peter

It's not my purpose to eradicate it, it's to understand it. Maybe I'm being stubborn (it's been known to happen), but I see try and as different from the other cases, that the verbs indicate two separate actions, as tunawrites indicated:

Wait (ten minutes). See if it gets better.
Look (at the engine). See what the problem is.
Come over (to our house). Have dinner with us.
"And" makes sense with these…

Try (to eradicate this use? gasoline and a match?). Eradicate this use.
but not with this.

I feel that I must be missing something here. I want it to make sense, and it just doesn't.

Glenn said:

Try. Feel better. Try and feel better. (As two sentences, could the try refer to a new medication? How about as one sentence?)
Wait. See what happens. Wait and see what happens. (As two sentences, could could the wait refer to a traffic signal? How about as one sentence?)

Try and is often unobjectionable. And maybe it's pragmatic. But "try and feel" leads me to wonder: try what? It must be something separate, no? Otherwise the conjunctive (and) would be inappropriate.

"Wait and see" might make sense, but "try" and anything is usually confounded.