Run

Recently, I walked to town to run some errands. When I wrote this news to my daughter, the wording caused me to wonder why I didn’t write that I ran to town to walk some errands, or that I ran to town to run some errands. 

My first statement—I walked to town to run some errands--indicates that I traveled on foot to complete some tasks. My second phrasing—I ran to town to walk some errands--makes no sense, in that the English language does not recognize “walking errands” as an activity. I could run an errand to walk my dog but not walk an errand. My final phrasing—I ran to town to run some errands--indicates that I “moved swiftly on foot” to complete some tasks, when in reality I walked. I could have run to town, literally, to run my errands, as Center Street in Folly Beach spans a short seven blocks, with our condo bordering the beach side of those blocks. I would have become a bit winded, but I could have literally run to town to run my errands.

To address these musings, I consulted the American Heritage Dictionary (AHD) on-line.  I first thought the phrasing, “run errands,” might be idiomatic. Since idioms don’t translate literally, they provide challenges in understanding the nuances of any language. For example, a Mexican friend from my undergraduate days, once told me that I “ate what a bird would eat,” trying to say that I “ate like a bird.” My favorite idiomatic expression from French is an idiom for a hangover: “J’ai mal aux cheveux” literally translates as “my hair hurts.”

Was I speaking idiomatically when I used the phrase “running errands” to mean I completed them? When I checked the definition of “run” in the AHD, I found my answer not under idiomatic uses, but way down under transitive verbs, entry number 16: “to do or carry out: run errands.” My usage was literal, but it has nothing to do with bi-pedal locomotion!

My research ran on about the word “run.” For such a short word, it is quite a workhorse. The AHD on-line includes 31 entries for “run” as a verb, 14 as a noun, and 2 as an adjective. No wonder I got confused trying to sort out the meaning of “run errands”!  In addition, the AHD lists several examples of “run” in verb phrases, meaning the verb “run” followed by a preposition, as in “run into,” and several idiomatic uses of “run,” as in “run off at the mouth” (or in the current case, the keyboard).

The AHD also includes an interesting note under “Our Living Language” about regional use of “run” meaning “stream” or “creek” or “kill” in New York State. Merriam-Webster on-line discusses regional uses of “run” as the past tense, instead of “ran,” as in “I run my errands yesterday.”

In its beginning, “run” came from Indo-European roots associated with “run” and “running stream.” Does this origin mean that I am not all wet in my musings? Or have I run this topic aground? Perhaps, I should stop the running gag and run along before my readers start to gag!