Garner’s Usage Tip of the Day: wed.

wed. This verb is traditionally inflected “wed / wedded / wedded.” As a past-tense form, “wed” is a variant that Webster’s New International Dictionary (2d ed.) labels “dialectal.” Stick with “wedded” — e.g.: o “Last year, the singer [Dan Fogelberg] wed [read ‘wedded’] his longtime fiancée, Anastasia Savage, who shares his love of oil painting.” Walter Scott, “Personality Parade,” Parade, 3 Jan. 1993, at 4. o “In one corner is lawyer Sanford Asher, who last month wed [read ‘wedded’] the ex-stripper convicted of plotting to kill his former wife and frame him for the crime.” Larry Celona, “Doctor Sues Swiss Miss Hubby,” N.Y. Post, 4 Feb. 2003, at 22. In the negative, the proper adjective is “unwed” {unwed mothers}. Language-Change Index — “wed” as past tense for “wedded”: Stage 2. For information about the Language-Change Index click here. ——————– Quotation of the Day: “Dictionary editors insist that they only reflect usage, but that’s a lie to fend off the anti-elitist ‘no rights, no wrongs’ contingent . . . . If dictionaries really reflected usage, we’d be eating ‘sherbert.'” Bill Walsh, Lapsing Into a Comma 19 (2000). ====================