A split infinitive is a phenomenon of the English language when an
adverb or adverbial phrase is inserted between "to" and a verb in its
infinitive form. One famous example is from the science fiction
series Star Trek: "To boldly go where no man has gone before." Here,
the infinitive verb form of "go" is "to go", and the adverb
"boldly"
has been inserted, creating a split infinitive. In the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, some grammatical authorities argued that split
infinitives should not be allowed in English, by an analogy with
Latin, where they are usually impossible. Most authorities from the
last 100 years, however, agree that this rule was mistaken, and
indeed that splitting an infinitive can sometimes reduce ambiguity.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_infinitive
Today's selected anniversaries:
1066 William the Conqueror and his invasion fleet of around 600
ships and an army of 7000 reached England and landed at
Pevensey, Sussex.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_the_Conqueror)
1542 Portuguese explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the first
European to travel the California coast, landed on what is
now San Diego.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Rodriguez_Cabrillo)
1820 The tomato was publicly proved safe when Robert Johnson ate
a bushel of tomatoes outside a courthouse in Salem,
Massachusetts.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/tomato)
1994 The M/S Estonia, a ferry commuting between Tallinn, Estonia
and Stockholm, Sweden, sank. 852 people drowned or were
frozen to death in the cold water in one of the worst
maritime accidents on the Baltic Sea.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M/S_Estonia)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Those who think they know it all are very annoying to those of us
who do." ~ Anonymous