Question: I am used to “as such” referring back to a specific word or phrase. Recently, I have seen it used where the referent is unspecified or absent. For example: “He broke his leg, and as such he missed work.” I am interested in the history of this term and its evolving usage.
Answer: Indeed, “as such” traditionally relates to a word or phrase that has already been mentioned. However, in colloquial use, the referent can be obscure, a practice that dates back almost as far as the original usage.
Historically, “as such” means “in itself” (intelligence as such won’t make you rich), “in that capacity” (a judge as such deserves respect), or “in its exact meaning” (she wasn’t a vegetarian as such).
Nevertheless, for three centuries, the phrase has colloquially been used to mean “consequently,” “subsequently,” or “thereupon,” a usage that is not acknowledged by standard dictionaries.
The primary definition of “as such” in the Oxford English Dictionary, a reference based on historical evidence, is “as being what the name or description implies; in that capacity.”
The earliest instance in the OED is from an essay by Richard Steele in The Spectator from April 17, 1711: “When she observed Will irrevocably her Slave, she began to use him as such.”
(A longer version of the phrase, “as it is such” or “as they are such,” appeared in The History of England by John Milton in 1670: “True fortitude glories not in the feats of War, as they are such, but as they serve to end War soonest by a victorious Peace.”)
The colloquial sense of “as such” was first documented a decade after its appearance in The Spectator. The original sense “contextually transitions into: ‘Accordingly, consequently, thereupon.'” The dictionary characterizes this usage as “colloquial” or “informal.”
The initial colloquial citation from the Oxford, which has been edited and expanded, is from a February 25, 1721, entry in the church warden’s accounts for a parish in Salisbury, England:
“he [the curate] had chosen the said William Clemens to be his parish Clerk … And bid the Congregation to take notice thereof and accept him—as such Witness Henry Biggs, F. Barber [and others].” From Churchwardens’ Accounts of S. Edmund & S. Thomas, Sarum (1896), edited by Henry James Fowle Swayne.
The next two Oxford citations are from letters written in England in the early 1800s and published in The Correspondence of William Fowler of Winterton, in the County of Lincoln (1907), edited by Joseph Thomas Fowler:
“I very much longed to hear from you … and as such I did not the least esteem it for its having been delayed for the reasons assigned” (from an 1800 letter by John King).
“H. R. H. Princess Augusta … motioned for me to come to her Highness. As such she addressed me in the most pleasant manner possible” (from an 1814 letter by William Fowler).
While “as such” in these colloquial examples does not refer to a specific word or phrase mentioned earlier, it does pertain to a previous occurrence or situation. However, as mentioned, this colloquial usage is not acknowledged by standard dictionaries and can be ambiguous and perplexing.
Lastly, we introduce the noun “as-suchness,” a derivative of “as such” defined in the OED as the “absolute existence or possession of qualities, independently of all other things whatever.”
The earliest citation in the dictionary is from A Pluralistic Universe (1909) by the American philosopher and psychologist William James. In this excerpt, the “it” at the beginning refers to “Bradley’s Absolute,” the British philosopher F. H. Bradley’s concept of ultimate reality:
“It is us, and all other appearances, but none of us as such, for in it we are all ‘transmuted,’ and its own as-suchness is of another denomination altogether.”
Help support the Grammarphobia Blog with your donation. And check out our books about the English language and more.
The post On ‘as such’ and its ‘as-suchness’ first appeared on Grammarphobia.
