to the manner born love

to the manner born

Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Familiar from birth with a specified custom, behaviour, accoutrement etc.; naturally suited to (it).

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, scene 4: "But to my mind, though I am native here / And to the manner born, it is a custom / More honour'd in the breach than the observance."

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Examples

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Comments

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  • "Though I am native here and to the manner born, it is a custom more honored in the breach than in the observance."

    Hamlet.

    often erroneously written as "to the manor born"

    October 18, 2007

  • Wait! I thought it *was* "to the manor born." That makes more sense. And Shakespeare didn't always spell everything right. Do we have other usage sources?

    October 18, 2007

  • I thought it was "manor", too, probably due to incidental exposure to the British sitcom in my formative years. And Google agrees with me. But it seems sionnach is right.

    October 18, 2007

  • For an interesting discussion of "to the manner born" and its illegitimate spawn "to the manor born" see

    http://www.word-detective.com/2011/10/to-the-manner-manor-born/

    January 16, 2017