A Ways To Go

A Ways To Go A Ways To Go A Ways To Go By Maeve Maddox A reader wonders about the expression â€Å"to have a ways to go†: I thought this was just a California quirk and a recent one at that, but I found it used by Dashiel Hammet in one of his stories, so it has been used for nearly a century. He was of course a California writer, so maybe there is a California connection, although its use seems to have spread nationwide. Unlike anyways, which is viewed as nonstandard on both sides of the Pond, â€Å"a ways to go† seems to have achieved standard status in US English. And while that particular phrase could owe its modern popularity to California-speak, the following OED citation in the entry for way in the sense of distance is dated 1588: They..came vnto the gates of the cittie, after they had gon a good wayes in the suburbs. [They..came unto the gates of the city, after they had gone a good ways in the suburbs.] An OED note points out that the â€Å"origin of the use of ways for way is obscure† and that the usage is â€Å"now only dialect and U.S.† The Ngram Viewer shows the phrase â€Å"a ways to go† in use as early as 1884, but its present popularity seems to have begun in the late 1960s. The following recent examples show the phrase used in a variety of contexts to indicate that a person or entity has more work to do in order to achieve a desired goal: Their disconnect on the immigration reform issue suggests the party still has a ways to go in bridging the gulf between the two.- CNN. Ryan Mallett shows promise, but Texans QB has a ways to go- NFL site headline Some scientists share better than others. While astronomers and geneticists embrace the concept, the culture of ecology still has a ways to go. - Michigan State University site. According to the Public Policy Institute of California, 69 percent of Californians have broadband at home- a ways to go from the state’s goal of 80 percent by 2015.- Encyclopedia of Human Memory, 2013. 13 Years Later, Still a Ways to Go on Sharing Terrorist Threats With Public  - National Defense Magazine. The Navy has made great improvements in race relations, but weve still got a ways to go.- US Defense Department site. IRS has a ways to go before meeting e-file adoption goal- IT site headline. I think we have a ways to go as far as really explaining the value of the Common Core showing how data that is gathered is secure so parents dont need to worry about that.- Superintendent of a Vermont school district.   â€Å"A ways to go† has a more folksy sound than â€Å"a way to go.† It may also suggest that the remaining distance to be traveled is longer than what would be indicated by â€Å"a way to go.† Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:20 Words with More Than One SpellingUse a Dash for Number Ranges150 Foreign Expressions to Inspire You