INCOMPLETE INFINITIVE

Domain	Definition
Tips from 1870	Usage: Incomplete Infinitive. Such incomplete expressions as the following are very common: "He has not gone to Europe, nor is he likely to." "She has not written her essay, nor does she intend to." "Can a man arrive at excellence who has no desire to?" The addition of the word go to the first sentence, and of write it, to the second would make them complete. In the case of the third sentence it would be awkward to say, "Can a man arrive at excellence who has no desire to arrive at excellence." We therefore substitute the more convenient expression "to do so." CHAPTER XI Participles Participles relate to nouns or pronouns, or else are governed by prepositions. Those ending in ing should not be made the subjects or objects of verbs while they retain the government and adjuncts of participles. They may often be converted into nouns or take the form of the infinitive. "Not attending to this rule is the cause of a very common error." Better, "Inattention to this rule," etc. "He abhorred being in debt." Better, "He abhorred debt," "Cavilling and objecting upon any subject is much easier than clearing up difficulties." Say, "To cavil and object upon any subject is much easier than to clear up difficulties." Source: Slips of Speech.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)

Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)

HTML Code (1990) (references)

ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)

Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)

Specialty Definition: INCOMPLETE INFINITIVE