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By times

Posted by Loren Hicks on August 27, 2009 at 09:34

There was a question posted in November 2000 about the phrase "by times", and no one had any information. I came across the post by chance, but apparently I can't add to it, so I'll start a new post.

"By times" is a phrase I have used for years, having picked it up from some I knew from Newfoundland. I have also heard it used there as well when I've been visiting. It means "perhaps", or "sometimes". As in "I'll be seein' you by times", or "If you're being by the bay at a dawn tide by times you'll see a whale."

Whether it is uniquely a Newf idiom, or simply one of the many archaic Irish-English forms used there, I do not know.

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