weave / wove / woven.
“Weaved” is correct only in the sense “moved in a winding or zigzag way” — e.g.: “Like scores of Saturday shoppers, Potter found himself in the middle of a 40-minute foot chase that began near the Capitol, weaved in and out of State Street buildings, and ended with the arrest of Shantell Washington, 19.” Gwen Carleton, “Foot Chase on State St.,” Wis. State J., 30 Dec. 1996, at A3. Otherwise, the past tense is “wove,” and the past participle “woven” — e.g.:
o “That’s art. So is the yarn he weaved [read ‘wove’] on a cardboard loom.” Rochelle Carter, “Brushing Off False Ideas About Art,” Atlanta J.-Const., 14 July 1997, Gwinnett Extra §, at 1.
o “Boeing has weaved [read ‘woven’] together a company operating in every part of the space business.” Jerry Hirsch, “Space, Boeing’s Frontier,” Orange County Register, 5 Aug. 1997, at C1.
o “The slogan weaved [read ‘wove’] its way into the fabric of American pop culture.” Frank Sennett, “Trade in the Shades,” Writer’s Digest, 1 Sept. 1997, at 51.
Language-Change Index — (1) “weaved” misused for “wove”: Stage 1; (2) “weaved” misused for “woven”: Stage 1.
For information about the Language-Change Index click here.
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Quotation of the Day: “If you could write lucidly, simply, euphoniously and yet with liveliness you would write perfectly.” W. Somerset Maugham, The Summing Up 41 (1938).
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