History tends to be the judge as to which is which

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Thierry - 14 Jan 2004 22:43 GMT

¡°History tends to be the judge as to which is which.'
I read this in the BBC new today. How to understand this sentence please?
Palicularly the role of "as" .
Thank you very much.
Thierry

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Skitt - 14 Jan 2004 22:56 GMT

> ¡°History tends to be the judge as to which is which.'
> I read this in the BBC new today. How to understand this sentence
> please? Palicularly the role of "as" .
> Thank you very much.
> Thierry

It's not "as", but rather "as to" that you have to consider.

From MWCD10 at www.m-W.com:
Main Entry: as to
Function: preposition
Date: 14th century
1 : AS FOR, ABOUT <at a loss as to how to explain the error>
2 : ACCORDING TO, BY <graded as to size and color>

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Skitt (in SF Bay Area)
... and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped.
-- Sir Bedevere

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Matti Lamprhey - 14 Jan 2004 23:00 GMT

"Thierry" <thierry@you.com> wrote...

> ¡°History tends to be the judge as to which is which.'
> I read this in the BBC new today. How to understand this sentence
> please? Palicularly the role of "as" .
> Thank you very much.

"as to" here is just a synonym for "regarding".

So the sentence means something like "History is often used to identify
the significance of these things."

Matti

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Adrian Bailey - 15 Jan 2004 02:01 GMT

> "Thierry" <thierry@you.com> wrote...
> > ¡°History tends to be the judge as to which is which.'
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> "as to" here is just a synonym for "regarding".

or "of".

Adrian

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Mike - 15 Jan 2004 06:19 GMT

"Which is which?" can mean for example: "Which one is yours and which one is
mine?"; or "Which is the good one, this one here, or that one there?"

> So the sentence means something like "History is often used to identify
> the significance of these things."
>
> Matti

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Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2004

History tends to be the judge as to which is which