Definition:
A construction in which one or more words come between the infinitive marker to and the verb.
Examples and Observations:
- "The only rationale for condemning the [split infinitive] construction is based on a false analogy with Latin. The thinking is that because the Latin infinitive is a single word, the equivalent English construction should be treated as if it were a single unit. But English is not Latin, and distinguished writers have split infinitives without giving it a thought. Noteworthy splitters include John Donne, Daniel Defoe, George Eliot, Benjamin Franklin, Abraham Lincoln, William Wordsworth, and Willa Cather. Still, those who dislike the construction can usually avoid it without difficulty."
(The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, 2000) - "Space--the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before."
(title sequence of the original Star Trek television series) - "Split infinitives have been the cause of much controversy among teachers and grammarians, but the notion that they are ungrammatical is simply a myth: in his famous book Modern English Usage, Henry Fowler listed them among 'superstitions'!"
(AskOxford.com) - "I was wise enough to never grow up while fooling most people into believing I had."
(Margaret Mead) - "I don't care if he is made to go quickly, or to quickly go--but go he must!"
(George Bernard Shaw) - "Would you convey my compliments to the purist who reads your proofs and tell him or her that I write in a sort of patois which is something like the way a Swiss waiter talks, and that when I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will stay split."
(Raymond Chandler)
