In my local daily today was a letter from a reader bemoaning the paper’s usage of the expression “go missing.” She claims that it’s grammatically incorrect and that it’s representative of the general decline in standards of language, yadda yadda.
Now, I don’t argue that it’s not a particularly fine example of usage. Nor do I argue that it’s grammatically incorrect; I’m sure it is. I am, however, looking to take her to task for pedantry. I’d like to make the point that there are many more egregious grammatical and semantic flaws in the paper and in daily usage about which to take offense, and that this is just a silly battle to fight. (Being able to correct a couple of errors in her letter doesn’t hurt my point any, either.)
So, my question: Just how long has “[to] go missing” been in common use in the US? I can’t find it in my OED, durnit, nor at dictionary.com.
Subquestion: Just how gramatically incorrect is it? Do I have a case that this is a really minor nitpick?
tia
Gone missing has been around for a few hundred years. The early explorers would have gone missing after two years with nobody contacting a consulate with news of their whereabouts. Nowadays, it could mean days.
The question (well, on the origin of “went missing”)was also raised on The Vocabula Review Forum. No solid answers, but the consensus was that it was a Britishism. Half the people there decried it; the other half recognized it as a workable idiom.
If I go on vacation and say that I will check in every 24 hours and I do not, I have gone missing. This is a subjective term that is rooted in the days of commmunication delays. Even if I go to the Amazon rain forest for research, I have already set up a timetable for communication with a base station. if I do not establish communication with my base station at the established time frame, I have gone missing>
I’ve got an OED on CD-ROM, and it mentions “go missing”, but the cites are actually “gone missing”. Hard to say if “go missing” would have been in common use beginning at the same time as “gone missing”, but it’s possible. And the general usage of “go” to mean a change in status or condition seems to have been around quite a while.
Here is the entry, “go missing” is mentioned in the description at the top, the cites for 1958 and 1965 show “gone missing”.
44. To pass into a certain condition. Chiefly implying deterioration.
a. With adj. complement: To become, get to be (in some condition). (Cf. come 25 a.) † to go less: to be abated or diminished. Also with n. complement: to become, use, or adopt the characteristics of (something specified); to go all —: see all C. 2 c; to go bush: see bush n.1; go missing: to get lost; to go native: to turn to or relapse into savagery or heathenism; also transf. (cf. Fanti b); to go — on (someone): to adopt a particular mode of behaviour towards or affecting (that person); to go public: to become a public company.
1583 T. Stocker tr. Civ. Warres Lowe C. i. 117 The siege of Leyden continued, & their victuals went very low.
1654 Earl of Monmouth Bentivoglio’s Warrs Flanders ii. 32 The Regent went every day less in her authority.
1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 173/1 Boniclatter [is] Cream gone thick.
1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 231 Let them [apricots] go cold betwixt every time.
1803 S. Pegge Anecd. Eng. Lang. 243 He went dead about three months ago.
1845 Hood Love iii, A poet gone unreasonably mad.
1861 Temple Bar III. 23 He went bankrupt.
Ibid. 248 Fright and…anxiety have…made strong men go gray in a single night.
1881 J. P. Sheldon Dairy Farm. 56/1 If it [the milk] is not taken proper care of it soon goes sour in hot weather.
1884 R. Buchanan Foxglove Manor III. xxxiii. 122 Her cheeks went scarlet.
1888 Lady D. Hardy Dang. Exper. III. iv. 84, I trembled and went hot and cold.
1890 Boldrewood Col. Reformer (1891) 419 Suppose he goes lame all of a sudden!
1891 Sat. Rev. 24 Jan. 101/2 Any bishopric or benchship that has just gone vacant.
1891 Harper’s Mag. Oct. 720/2 Before us lay a sea of fern, gone a russet brown from decay.
1901 Kipling Kim vii. 177 Kim did not sweep the board with his reminiscences; for St. Xavier’s looks down on boys who ‘go native altogether’.
1928 L. P. Greene Red Idol 253, I do all the heavy work… That’s the only thing that’s saved me from going native altogether.
1929 J. P. McEvoy Hollywood Girl (1930) vii. 102, I thought he was the one who had gone Hollywood. Pictures in the paper, guest of this and that. It’s a wonder you notice me, I told him.
1930 Times Lit. Suppl. 4 Sept. 694 Religious ceremonies which suggest to him that the new religion of Christianity [in S. America] has, after the fashion of new religions, gone native.
1953 Economist 24 Oct. 273/2 (headline) BBC goes VHF.
1958 F. Norman Bang to Rights 56 The snout had gone missing.
1960 E. W. Hildick Boy at Window iii. 29 The best white mouse I ever had! Nearly human! And now it’s gone native!
1963 Times 28 Jan. 2/7 Tentative plans are that on reaching a total of 3,000 acres a private limited company should be formed, and that at 5,000 acres it should ‘go public’.
1963 Sat. Even. Post 15 June 4/2 Don’t go too ‘arty’ on us.
1965 Listener 16 Dec. 983/1 Within twelve years 2,500,000–one in seven–had gone missing.
1966 [see city page s.v. city 9].
1966 New Society 17 Mar. 25/3 (headline) Amis goes serious on us.
1966 New Yorker 1 Oct. 183 (Advt.), Then I write my letter accusing them of going establishment.
1970 Sci. Jrnl. Aug. 3/3 It is not the fact that we are going nuclear that should give us pause.
1971 Guardian 6 July 7/6 A warning about the affairs of V and G was given as early as 1962, the year after the company went public.
RJKugly rules. I am a modest man who has gone on vacation, or reality check.these are my reality checks with people I care about, screw the rules, but I follow them…
