Maintain
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The verb 'to maintain' and its associated (noncount) noun maintenance are both among the 117 mis-spellings listed as 'Common difficulties' in the section on 'Spelling' within 'Writing' in UEfAP. The difficulties with spelling may be linked with the differences in their pronunciation.
- The verb 'to maintain' is stressed on the second syllable, which has the same vowel sound as the first: 'mane-TANE', IPA: /meɪn ˈteɪn/. As '-ai-' is one of the normal ways of representing this diphthong (/eɪ/) in English, the spelling appears logical.
- In the noun maintenance, the stress has shifted to the first syllable, and consequently the vowel of the second, and usually the third, syllable has been reduced to the common English unstressed shwa vowel: 'MANE-tern-erns', /ˈmeɪn tə nə (or æ)ns/.
- The varied meanings of the two words may be explained by their base meanings, of 'holding', 'keeping'. (The root is the Latin manū, 'in or by hand', and tenēre, 'to hold'. In classical Latin, the phrase manū tenēre was used mean 'to have tangible evidence of something'.) This has been extended to mean, amongst others:
- 'support', 'back up', 'uphold', 'defend'.
- This could become 'to incite' or 'abet' some wrong action. In Law, the maintenance of a court action, is "wrongfully aiding and abetting litigation; spec[ifically] support of a suit or suitor at law by a party who has no legally recognized interest in the proceedings" (OED).
- To maintain an opinion or idea is to uphold or defend it in discussion or debate etc. Sometimes this is ass simple as asserting that it is true or right, without any reasoned explanation. In the song of the Vicar of Bray, the singer asserts simply "And this is law, I will maintain/ Unto my Dying Day, Sir,/ That whatsoever King may reign,/ I will be the Vicar of Bray, Sir!"
- In military terms, maintaining a position, place or possession means holding or defending it; one can maintain one's ground. This sense is often used figuratively, as when the playwright John Fletcher wrote, in Rule a Wife and have a Wife (1640) iii. 37 (cited [[OED}}): "I stand upon the ground of mine own honour And will maintaine it."
- The varied meanings of the two words may be explained by their base meanings, of 'holding', 'keeping'. (The root is the Latin manū, 'in or by hand', and tenēre, 'to hold'. In classical Latin, the phrase manū tenēre was used mean 'to have tangible evidence of something'.) This has been extended to mean, amongst others:
†practise habitually; carry on, continue; support, provide for XIV
