JimC wrote:Seth wrote:JimC wrote:Seth wrote:
...Shouldn't take more than a week all tolled.
Is this a case of "for whom the bell tolled"?
That brings up an interesting question about the term. Some use "all told" as in "everything said" and others, like me, use "all tolled" which means "with everything accounted for." Which is correct usage do you think?
I've never seen the "all tolled" version before. Perhaps it's a uniquely American usage...
Here's what some Internet expert said about it:
What You Must Know About "All Told" and "All Tolled"
I paused over the expression all told in a piece of business writing the other day. Because I had not seen the phrase in a long time, I decided to make sure it was correct. Sometimes expressions we think are correct are not. You can read my posts "Disburse Vs. Disperse--Wrong!" and "Do You Write With Flare?" for examples of words to reconsider.
Here is what you need to know about all told and all tolled: Only all told is correct.
To support that statement, I have four excellent resources piled on my desk at this moment. They are Canadian Oxford Dictionary, Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, The American Heritage College Dictionary, and Garner's Modern American Usage--all the latest editions.
The American Heritage College Dictionary defines the expression as "with everything considered; in all." Garner explains its use this way: "One archaic meaning of tell is 'to count.' Hence the idiom is all told."
You might use the expression this way:
His investment, all told, was close to a million dollars.
All told, she paid over $7,000 in penalties.
The explosion resulted in 12 casualties, all told.
All told, Kristi sent out nearly 500 resumes.
Since the expression is not well known, you might be wise to avoid it. But if you do see all told in someone else's business writing, remember this blog post before you replace it with "all totaled," grab your red pen, or frown in disappointment.
Here's another:
Is it all told or all tolled?
Cassandra Lifesnadir
Answered Last
Sound-alike words can be very confusing.
As you know, "told" is the past tense of "tell."
"Tolled" is the past tense of "toll", which is the sound a bell makes when a clapper strikes its inner surface.
So, in your question, you want the phrase "all told."
Here are example sentences of the differences between "all told" and "all tolled".
1. All told, there were 20 injured students.
2. Sixty persons, all told, objected to the plan.
"All told" is a shortened version of "all be told", which basically means, "If all the facts be told, this is what happened."
1. Church bells across the country all tolled at the hour when the plane had crashed ten years earlier.
2. A chorus of bells all tolled under the expert hands of the bell ringers at the Christmas Eve service.
"All tolled" means "all of the bells from ___ tolled" or "all of the bells tolled".
"All told" is a phrase instructors discourage using in academic writing. It is generally an awkward and unsophisticated phrase. It can be omitted without changing the meaning of the sentence.
1. All told, one hundred and forty persons died over Labor Day weekend in New York City.
2. One hundred and forty persons died over Labor Day weekend in New York City.
Hilary Tu
And another:
All told
For whom the clinker clanks.
Dear Word Detective: I’ve pondered the question and I’ve done a little research on the internet only to find conflicting opinions on the subject. So I write to you, the master, to give me an answer to the question. Is it “all told” or “all tolled”? Even newspapers frustrate me on this one (not that they don’t frustrate me with their news as well). — L. Fiske.
Master, eh? So how come I can’t get my own dogs to do simple things, such as mowing the lawn? All they’re willing to do is wash dishes, and the plates smell funny afterward.
alltold308.pngBut since we seem to be in the mood for a pronouncement, here it is: the standard idiom is “all told,” not “all tolled,” and has been since it first appeared in the mid-19th century. What you have stumbled upon is a classic “eggcorn,” the substitution of a word or words that sound similar (or in this case exactly the same, “tolled” and “told” being homophones) to the “correct” words. The term “eggcorn” was coined in 2003 by linguist Geoffrey Pullum in regard to someone online using “eggcorn” instead of “acorn.” The key feature of an “eggcorn” is that the substitution makes a certain weird sense, as in the case of “eggcorn” itself. An acorn is indeed rather egg-shaped, and is a seed, as is corn, so if one has heard “acorn,” but never seen the word in print, writing it as “eggcorn” is not entirely crazy. The substitution of “for all intensive purposes” for “intents and purposes” is another semi-logical classic eggcorn.
“All tolled” is not only an eggcorn for “all told,” it’s apparently one that some people (according to the excellent Eggcorn Database) are willing to defend as the “correct” form. Their argument is that “tolled” means “added up,” which it does not and never has. “To toll” (of which “tolled” is the past tense) means “to ring a bell,” or (rarely) “to demand a tax or charge” (as at a toll booth). The noun “toll” means “tax, charge or levy.” The use of “toll” in “death toll” and similar phrases as a metaphorical equivalent of “price” does not mean that “to toll” means “to sum up.”
“All told,” on the other hand, does sound a bit odd. At first glance, “all told” seems to imply that whatever is being summed up is a sort of story being narrated or “told,” and when the story-telling is finished one says “all told,” a weirdly abrupt equivalent of “game over.”
But “tell” (of which “told” is the past tense) didn’t originally mean “to narrate.” Rooted in the Old English “tellen,” it meant “to count” or “to keep track of,” a sense we still use when we “tell time” and which underlies the word “teller,” a person who keeps track of money in a bank. “All told” embodies this archaic sense of “tell” in the past tense to mean “all counted and added up, in summation.” So “all told” can be properly used in a numerical sense (“All told, twelve football players were arrested”) as well as a more figurative sense of “the end result” (“All told, it was a pretty successful day”). Interestingly, the evolution of “to tell” from meaning “to count” to meaning “to narrate a story” is paralleled by another common word, “recount” (as well as “account” for the story itself).
Then again, Dictionary.com says thusly:
toll1
[tohl]
Synonyms
Examples
Word Origin
noun
1.
a payment or fee exacted by the state, the local authorities, etc., for some right or privilege, as for passage along a road or over a bridge.
2.
the extent of loss, damage, suffering, etc., resulting from some action or calamity:
The toll was 300 persons dead or missing.
3.
a tax, duty, or tribute, as for services or use of facilities.
4.
a payment made for a long-distance telephone call.
5.
(formerly, in England) the right to take such payment.
6.
a compensation for services, as for transportation or transmission.
7.
grain retained by a miller in payment for grinding.
verb (used with object)
8.
to collect (something) as toll.
9.
to impose a tax or toll on (a person).
verb (used without object)
10.
to collect toll; levy toll.
Origin
Old English
1000
before 1000; (noun) Middle English, Old English toll (cognate with Dutch tol, German Zoll, Old Norse tollr), assimilated variant of Old English toln < Late Latin tolōnēum, for telōnēum < Greek telōneîon tollhouse, akin to telṓnēs tax collector, télos tax; (v.) Middle English tollen, derivative of the noun
Synonyms
3. tariff, levy, impost, exaction.
toll2
[tohl]
verb (used with object), Also, tole (for defs 5, 6).
1.
to cause (a large bell) to sound with single strokes slowly and regularly repeated, as for summoning a congregation to church, or especially for announcing a death.
2.
to sound or strike (a knell, the hour, etc.) by such strokes:
In the distance Big Ben tolled five.
3.
to announce by this means; ring a knell for (a dying or dead person).
4.
to summon or dismiss by tolling.
5.
to lure or decoy (game) by arousing curiosity.
6.
to allure; entice:
He tolls us on with fine promises.
verb (used without object)
7.
to sound with single strokes slowly and regularly repeated, as a bell.
noun
8.
the act of tolling a bell.
9.
one of the strokes made in tolling a bell.
10.
the sound made.
Origin
1175-1225; Middle English tollen to entice, lure, pull, hence probably to make (a bell) ring by pulling a rope; akin to Old English -tyllan, in fortyllan to attract, allure
toll3
[tohl]
verb (used with object), Law.
1.
to suspend or interrupt (as a statute of limitations).
Origin
1425-75; late Middle English tollen to remove, legally annul < Anglo-French tolre, tol (l) er < Latin tollere to remove, take away
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2015.
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Examples from the web for toll
The bells will be tolled today, and some public expression of sorrow of the citizens will be made.
All over the countryside church bells tolled, summoning sinners to worship.
Calculation of time for speedy trial must recognize periods during which time was tolled prior to amendment.
British Dictionary definitions for toll
toll1
/təʊl/
verb
1.
to ring or cause to ring slowly and recurrently
2.
(transitive) to summon, warn, or announce by tolling
3.
(US & Canadian) to decoy (game, esp ducks)
noun
4.
the act or sound of tolling
Word Origin
C15: perhaps related to Old English -tyllan, as in fortyllan to attract
toll2
/təʊl; tɒl/
noun
1.
an amount of money levied, esp for the use of certain roads, bridges, etc, to cover the cost of maintenance
(as modifier): toll road, toll bridge
2.
loss or damage incurred through an accident, disaster, etc: the war took its toll of the inhabitants
3.
Also called tollage. (formerly) the right to levy a toll
4.
(NZ) Also called toll charge. a charge for a telephone call beyond a free-dialling area
Word Origin
Old English toln; related to Old Frisian tolene, Old High German zol toll, from Late Latin telōnium customs house, from Greek telónion, ultimately from telos tax
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cite This Source
Word Origin and History for toll
toll
n.
"tax, fee," Old English toll, variant of toln, cognate with Old Norse tollr, Old Frisian tolen, Old High German zol, German Zoll, representing an early Germanic borrowing from Late Latin tolonium "custom house," from Latin telonium "tollhouse," from Greek teloneion "tollhouse," from telones "tax-collector," from telos "tax" (see tele-; for sense, cf. finance). Originally in a general sense of "payment exacted by an authority;" meaning "charge for right of passage along a road" is from late 15c.
v.
"to sound with single strokes," mid-15c., probably a special use of tollen "to draw, lure," early 13c. variant of Old English -tyllan in betyllan "to lure, decoy," and fortyllan "draw away, seduce," of obscure origin. The notion is perhaps of "luring" people to church with the sound of the bells, or of "drawing" on the bell rope. Related: Tolled; tolling.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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toll in the Bible
one of the branches of the king of Persia's revenues (Ezra 4:13; 7:24), probably a tax levied from those who used the bridges and fords and highways.
Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
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Idioms and Phrases with toll
toll
see: take its toll
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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