Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2023 January 14

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January 14

"see of you won't"

I'm reading In the Midst of Civilized Europe by Jeffrey Veidlinger. One page reproduces an ad for a 1919 (!) special issue of The Literary Digest titled "Will a Slaughter of Jews Be Next European Horror?" Below the abstract to this issue, there is a general promotional text for the magazine ending as follows: Get this week's number and see of you won't. Now what exactly is the deal with that phrase "and see of you won't"? Hildeoc (talk) 20:05, 14 January 2023 (UTC)

@Hildeoc: It's "if" not "of". "You will follow the example of 2,000,000 others and read THE DIGEST from cover to cover. Get this week's number and see if you won't" - i.e. See if you won't read it from cover to cover. You can see another example of an advert for The Digest here. DuncanHill (talk) 20:14, 14 January 2023 (UTC)

@DuncanHill: Thanks a lot for looking into that. Of course, now it absolutely makes sense. So this must be a misprint, as it clearly reads "of" in the said [repro of that] 1919 ad. Interesting. Hildeoc (talk) 20:18, 14 January 2023 (UTC)

A result of the o's being immediately above the i on a Linotype keyboard, no doubt. See Etaoin shrdlu. Deor (talk)

Or because the text was originally prepared on a typewriter and O and I are also adjacent on a qwerty keyboard. No doubt. --142.112.220.65 (talk) 22:42, 14 January 2023 (UTC)