Every each - every which?
A bit of English
Mostly for those who read or watched "No country for old men" by Cormac McCarthy
Remember how Carson Wells, in reply to
You know Anton Chigurh by sight, is that correct?
drops the phrase
Yes, sir, I know him every which way.
For a non-native speaker the construction is not obvious at all, but, for example, collinsdictionary explains the case in some detail
Every which way and any which way are used to emphasize that something happens, or might happen, in a lot of different ways, or using a lot of different methods.
For example:
in all directions; everywhere I looked every which way for you b. US and Canadian from all sides stones coming at me every which way
The writer\'s countrymen often remark that his language is specific even for Americans.
For a while I even thought that which had somehow mutated out of each in the construction every each
"every" was originally nothing more than an intensifier for "each".
It was written as æfre ælc (every one of a group), where "æfre", as you understand, is the modern "every". That is, literally every-every. So much every that practically everything... And that is the thought I would ask you to drill into your brain.
Right next to the one that "æfre" by itself, and therefore "every", is not viable.
It is merely an attribute of the word that follows it…
Leave a comment if you know whether there is a connection between them.
Article author: Andrei Olegovich