U.S. condoles with India over soldiers killed in clash with China, tensions stay high

[conuly]

Condoles?

That's a usage I'm unfamiliar with!

The Ngram viewer does suggest it's very rare, and getting rarer by the decade. However, that only checks American + British English - further googling revealed, unsurprisingly, that it's much more common in Indian English.

Comments

[sovay]

That's a usage I'm unfamiliar with!

I've encountered it in fiction and I want to say occasionally nonfiction. I think of it as archaic, but not alien.

[steorra]

I recognize it from Pride and Prejudice:

1. "And Lady Lucas has been very kind; she walked here on Wednesday morning to condole with us, and offered her services, or any of her daughters’, if they should be of use to us."

2. "I feel myself called upon, by our relationship, and my situation in life, to condole with you on the grievous affliction you are now suffering under, of which we were yesterday informed by a letter from Hertfordshire."

[swingandswirl]

Yep! Indian English has a bunch of archaic words/phrases like that - condole, stepney, and others I can't think of right now - that were in common use during the British occupation of the subcontinent that have passed out of common use in the UK but are still around here.

BTW, book rec if you want to know more about Indian English, Kalpana Mohan's An English Made In India is really good.

[wpadmirer]

Condoles is the verb form of condolences.

I've heard it, but then the South tends to use more archaic phrases than other parts of the USA.

[james]

That's actually a cool word!

[shadowkat]

Thank you, the "Condoles" bothered me as well. It made my head hurt, as it tried to fix the sentence in order for it to make sense. Is it the US sympathizes with? The US sends condolences with? US condolences? No that's not right.

Ah, it's a common usage in Indian English - so may be a translation of the Indian phrasing? I've noticed that happening with other languages as well - some sentences and phrases in other languages don't translate cleanly into English.

[greghousesgf]

A friend of mine from India told me that there they consider British English and American English two different languages.