for to
conjEtymology for + to, compare Scots for tae, Danish for at, Norwegian for å, Swedish för att.
› Elaboration of to.
1
Expressing purpose: in order to.
Obsolete outside dialect or poetic use
- What went ye out for to see?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Luke 7:25:
- Farewell! Farewell! / Farewell, my fairy fay! / Oh, I'm off to Louisiana / For to see my Susy Anna, / Singing, "Polly-wolly-doodle" all the day!c. 1843, “Polly-Wolly-Doodl[e]”, in Hoyt Parmelee et al., compilers, A Collection of Songs and Ballads as Sung by Alpha Kappa Phi and Germanæ Sodales Societies, of Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan, Hillsdale, Mich.: Leader Steam Print, published 1885, →OCLC, page 11:
2 more examples
- “Mr. Woilde, we ‘ave come for tew take yew Where felons and criminals dwell: We must ask yew tew leave with us quoietly^([sic]) For this is the Cadogan Hotel.”1937, John Betjeman, The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel:
- All that I need for to be satisfied is a woman who's nothing like me2004, Jackie Greene, “Honey I Been Thinking About You”, in Sweet Somewhere Bound:
2
As a general infinitive marker.
Obsolete outside dialect or poetic use
- It does me good fur to look at you, Pip.1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter I, in Great Expectations […], volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 10:
- In the desert you can remember your name, / 'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no pain1971, Dewey Bunnell, “A Horse with No Name”, performed by America: