About While-away-the-day Books:
We are a small, indie press dedicated to bringing you stories to help while away a lazy day.
*Publisher’s note: Is it While away or Wile away? We double checked to make sure of the correct usage. From The Grammarist.com: “… a phrase meaning to pass time idly is while away. It is older and more logical than wile away. But because the second phrase occurs so frequently, it is now included in many dictionaries and is rarely considered incorrect. There are instances of while away going back to the early 18th century. The phrase employs a now archaic sense of while--namely, to fill up the time. Today, while is used only as a noun or conjunction (except in while away), and because 21st-century English speakers not used to seeing while as a verb, it’s easy to assume that wile away is the correct phrase. But wile is mainly a noun—meaning (1) trickery, cunning; (2) a disarming or seductive manner; (3) or a trick intended to deceive--and it’s occasionally used as a verb meaning to influence by wile. None of these definitions has anything to do with idly passing time, so wile away doesn’t make logical sense. Again, however, it is now a conventionalized misspelling, and only the most persnickety readers will think it wrong. Just thought you’d want to know!
We are a small, indie press dedicated to bringing you stories to help while away a lazy day.
*Publisher’s note: Is it While away or Wile away? We double checked to make sure of the correct usage. From The Grammarist.com: “… a phrase meaning to pass time idly is while away. It is older and more logical than wile away. But because the second phrase occurs so frequently, it is now included in many dictionaries and is rarely considered incorrect. There are instances of while away going back to the early 18th century. The phrase employs a now archaic sense of while--namely, to fill up the time. Today, while is used only as a noun or conjunction (except in while away), and because 21st-century English speakers not used to seeing while as a verb, it’s easy to assume that wile away is the correct phrase. But wile is mainly a noun—meaning (1) trickery, cunning; (2) a disarming or seductive manner; (3) or a trick intended to deceive--and it’s occasionally used as a verb meaning to influence by wile. None of these definitions has anything to do with idly passing time, so wile away doesn’t make logical sense. Again, however, it is now a conventionalized misspelling, and only the most persnickety readers will think it wrong. Just thought you’d want to know!