Seeing the future

Her note was my first inkling of a ”looking to” problem, but the American Heritage Dictionary, it turns out, has also grown suspicious of the expression. In the latest edition of the dictionary, this sense of ”look to” is flagged as a problem for the first time; in 1997 the usage panel narrowly rejected it, by 52 to 48 percent. In the usage note, AHD claims that ”look to” ”has recently developed the meanings ’expect to’ and ’hope to,’” as in ”I’m looking to sell my car in July.”

Not quite. The ”hope” is new, but the ”expect” meaning is actually 500 years old. The Oxford English Dictionary’s earliest citation comes from Thomas More’s ”Richard III,” circa 1513: ”these last words that ever I look to speak with you” (spelling modernized). Hobbes and Housman, Southey and Harriet Beecher Stowe used ”look to” meaning ”expect.”

And in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, ”looking to” appears in reports of legal proceedings: ”From the time I heard Homuth was looking for me I was looking to be killed all the time” (1893). Webster’s Dictionary editions of 1828 and 1913 listed ”look to” as meaning ”expect,” the former quoting the Earl of Clarendon (”He must look to fight another battle”), the latter Spenser (”Looking each hour into Death’s mouth to fall”).

It’s true, however, that ”look to” has evolved since the mid-20th century. Use of the participial form, ”looking to,” has come to dominate, says Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage, and the sense has expanded to include ”hope and intention as well as expectation.” In 1994, MWDEU predicted that dictionaries would soon be listing a new sense for ”looking to,” reflecting the broader meaning. And Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate does just that.

But the spread of ”looking to” apparently provoked a backlash, as is common with newly popular words. Some people--including half the AHD’s usage panel--thought resistance was in order. (Their distaste may have been fueled by the prevalence of ”looking to” in sports reporting, a realm where many a buzzword or catch phrase first puts down roots.)