Isn't AIN'T a Word?
By
Staten Island, NY Posted: 3/22/2017 1:00:00 AM
It's in the dictionary, but we've all been told that Ain't... Isn't a word, but here's how it could be.
Every year, new words are added to the dictionary, because dictionaries are a reflection of the words we use every day, and for what it's worth, that's why "Ain't" is in the dictionary. Problem solved? Not quite, most English majors will tell you that it's still not a real word.
If you look at the way it's spelled, you can see the root of the problem. The apostrophe implies that its a contraction of two word, such as "Can't" is a contraction of Can and Not, however when you try to split Ain't into two words, you come up blank. There is no connection to the word's original parts, which were "Am Not". Am not was combined into Amn't, and later bastardized to the mess we have today... Ain't.
I think the solution is to simply remove the apostrophe, leaving us with Aint. While "Aint" is NOT in the dictionary, it should be, because its definitely a spoken word, and unlike "Ain't", there is no useless apostrophe.
Joe Crescenzi, Founder
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