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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend January 1, 2006 Since You Asked Won’t you please tell me What words make the contraction "won't"? It is a bizarre contraction. Is there a story behind it? Is there any other contraction that is so weird? — Jim M. Well, Jim, "won’t" is a contraction of the words "will" and "not." But what looks bizarre to our eyes may not have looked that way to a contemporary of Shakespeare. "Won’t" comes down to us by way of "wynnot," and later "wonnot" and had assumed its present form by 1667. The verb "will" is from the Old English "wyllan," meaning wish, desire or want. The irregular contraction "won’t" probably seems so strange because it follows the regular pattern of placing the apostrophe where the missing "o" would go — but it leaves out earlier letters as well. Then of course there’s the stigmatized "ain’t," originally a contraction of "am not" that has, since its introduction in the late 1700s, come also to be a contraction of "have not," "has not" and "is not," according to the American Heritage Dictionary’s Fourth Edition. As opposed to won’t, this contraction was linked with the "lower classes" shortly after its derivation from "an’t" (short for "are not" and "am not") and thus has been shunned from "proper" English since. Send questions to "Since You Asked," Mail Tribune Newsroom, P.O. Box 1108, Medford, OR 97501; by fax to 541-776-4376; or by e-mail to Since You Asked ">[email protected] . We’re sorry, but the volume of questions received prevents us from answering all of them. Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback www.bingo.com Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker dvd-r Distance Education Computer Security Cheap Website Hosting Sports Equipment Student Loans Online Pharmacy tcg student loan consolidation Online Casino Reviews Myspace Home Equity Loans Windermere Van Vleet Deep Muscle Stimulator Discount Hotel Reservations High End Computers Online Casino News Online Bingo Entertainment Guide Salvia Divinorum Online Casino Fundraisers Advertisement s