51吃瓜

Odyssey

Some history …

We can find the phrase听ever afterward听around 1300 and ever after in the early 1400s.听They mean “for all time (ever) going forward from some point (after),” which English speakers would generally say or write as听ever since today.

Except in fairy tales, where ever after survives听in the formula of听happily ever after.

This particular phrase is recorded by the early 1700s, but by the 1860s it had become commonly听associated with fairy tale and children’s stories. It especially appears in听they lived happily ever after鈥攎aking sure all the princes married their princesses in their castles and enjoyed the rest of their days. By the 1880s, we can already find authors calling听happily after ever听out as BS.

What, exactly, cemented this connection isn’t clear, as the historic sources of fairy tales don’t feature happily ever after.听Nevertheless, the connection was sealed by the 20th century.听Not only have countless stories closed with听(happily)听ever after, but the phrase itself has come to represent fairy tales and happy endings鈥攁nd marriages, where happily ever after is the storybook ending we’re told to dream of.

Finishing actual stories with living听happily ever after听became clich茅 by the 1990鈥�2000s, but popular media, writing, and speech widely use听ever after in titles in everything from collections of fairy tales to self-help books on retirement.

Disney even has a wedding blog called Ever After.听And, remember that Drew Barrymore movie听, a 1998 fantasy romance?

Ever after听has become so common that we can use it like a noun (e.g.,听we’re all searching for our happily ever after or听he finally found his ever after). How … nauseating.

You put the “happily” in my “ever after” 馃挋馃檲

鈥� Ingrid (@rynford_)