Sunday, September 21, 2025

"We hope you enjoy!"

 Today, I can totally accept 'Enjoy!' when it is used to end an informal message. But I admit when I saw the sentence "We hope you enjoy!", I still found it slightly odd. On second thought, though, if "Enjoy!" as an intransitive verb is universally acceptable today, why not 'We hope you enjoy!"!

I first learnt 'enjoy' as a transitive verb while in primary school, hence 'enjoy oneself', 'enjoy (doing) something', etc. In the next few decades, 'enjoy' continued to be used as a transitive verb. Then, starting about 20 (?) years ago, the intransitive usage started to surface, hence 'Enjoy!' at the end of an informal message.
A moment ago, my mind was caught by this question: "Exactly when did the intransitive usage of 'enjoy' begin?" So I went to Perplexity and asked the question, and was amazed at the answer. "Enjoy" actually started out as an intransitive verb in the 14th century (meaning 'Rejoice', 'Be happy', etc.)! It transitioned to transitive use by the mid-15th century. Then the intransitive usage revived in the late 20th century.
Language is changing and developing all the time. And that's one reason why it is so fascinating.



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