pray

«pray» in Mova's early modern english dictionary: please; ask; speak to God — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

kind

archaic sense

modern equivalent

please; ask; speak to God

part of speech

verb

meaning for a pupil

In old texts "pray" means "please" or "I beg you"; the Torah also uses it for speaking to God. tree →

how it differs from today

Today "pray" means speak to God or ask for help; the sense "please" is old, and the sentences use it that way.

examples

• I pray you give her unto him to wife. (Torah GEN.34.8, JPS 1917) tree →
• "Take it pray, as a present!" (Russian Fairy Tales: A Choice Collection of Muscovite Folk-lore) tree →
• And he said: 'Show me, I pray Thee, Thy glory.' (Torah EXO.33.18, JPS 1917) tree →

primary record

pray

tests

rate: sense (≥3 uses in the Torah, ≥10× EWT there, Wiktionary: an archaic sense); corpora 406 (Torah 69, tales 337, Sefer Yetzirah 0); EWT 3; ratio 6.6 (Torah alone 23.0); Wiktionary archaic (a sense)

In the corpora

• And he said: 'I pray you, my brethren, do not so wickedly.
• and said: 'Whose daughter art thou? tell me, I pray thee.
• And I said unto her: Let me drink, I pray thee.
• Arise, I pray thee, sit and eat of my venison, that thy soul may bless me.'
• Then Rachel said to Leah: 'Give me, I pray thee, of thy son's mandrakes.'

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «pray» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.