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A-wandering?

Is A-Wondering any different from just Wondering?

Monica is excited to go out with Paul the wine guy. The friends are also there watching the couple and having fun. Among all those emotions Monica it is only normal that she is loosing her words mid sentence.

Monica: I'll be right back. I've just gotta go... (looking for word)
Ross: A-wandering?

Why there is the extra a- for the wondering? Does adding a- makes the joke pop up in a different light?

The word "wondering" here means to marvel and to be amazed at something. True. This whole date with Paul the wine guy is an utterly dreamy situation for Monica. Now, when the perfect guy has finally asked our Monica out, it is easy for her to loose touch with reality. Ross knows his sister all too well. Ross can see Monica is about to start going places in her head, like proposal, wedding, house and kids. So Ross takes the opportunity to tease Monica and guesses her inner state out loud:

- A-wondering? But why add the "a-" prefix?

Back in the olden days English would not say "wondering" they'd say "a-wondering". So Ross by adding this extra "a-" prefix gives this "wondering" word sort of magical spin. "A-wondering?" phrase makes Monica look like a little girl that has finally gotten her own fairytale with happily ever after under the belt.

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Comments

  1. poorna30 October 2012 at 20:28

    I think it's because Monica finishes the line like, "I'll be right back. I've just gotta go...a..a.." :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Katie30 October 2012 at 20:51

      Thank you, poorna! Seems like perfectly natural explanation to me now)). It could be just it!

      Delete
  2. zombie-d0g14 March 2014 at 11:47

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVcJIMhmGys

    When English was much older, you could 'wander' or you could 'go a-wandering', you could not 'go wandering'. Gradually this prefix was lost, and was only spoken by people who want to seem like old bards or minstrels, and only remembered through the old german song, "The Happy Wanderer," by Florenz Friedrich Sigismund, and which was made wildly popular for some reason when it was sung by a Children's Choir in the UK, in 1954.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Katie17 March 2014 at 05:15

      Oh, I know! It is just like in this 12 Days of Christmas song. Where '10 Lords a-leaping' and others do something a-else. Thank you.

      Delete

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