I've Done Finished
Kate from Petoskey
called in a distinction that tends to divide families and friends. It’s the
notion that done and finished cannot be interchangeable. The admonishing
cliché is, “A roast is done; people are finished.”
This falls in the same
prescriptivist bin as “never end a sentence with a preposition” and “never
split an infinitive.” People
become passionate about these things, but without logical justification.
All it takes to
perpetuate such language myths is one writer or one book making stern and
apodictic pronouncements. In the case of done vs. finished, Merriam-Webster’s
Concise Dictionary of English Usage
points to MacCracken & Sandison’s 1917 Manual of Good English.
It reminds me of John Dryden and his 18th century cohorts, who were embarrassed by the
“corrupt” English of their day and capriciously invented new rules and
spellings to clean it up. But
even Dryden had no problem with done used to express finished:
“Now the Chime of Poetry is done.” [tr. Virgil Pastorals ix]
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