Is the expression 'of an evening', 'of a morning', 'of a Saturday', good English or dialect? [duplicate]
ODO says that of an evening(or morning etc,) is an informal expression meaning:
- at some time in the evenings (or mornings etc.).
Examples:
- If you're generally stuck for something to have for dinner of an evening, then hop along to The Red Kitchen and see what people there are having.
- Besides, the three of you look impossibly cute when you're sat like that of an evening.
- Now - you MUST bring Connie over to the club for dinner of an evening soon; my wife was only talking to her last week and she was saying it's been so long since we've all eaten together!
Or
- on most evenings (or mornings etc.).
Examples:
- When I was growing up The Archers was a regular feature, always on in the kitchen of an evening and my sister and I were forced to keep quiet for the critical 15 minutes.
- Thanks for confirming my long-held belief that I'm better off slowly destroying my liver than staying in of an evening.
- We've come to delight in having a few tealights burning of an evening.
From: The American Heritage ® Dictionary of the English Language:
- “Some speakers of vernacular English varieties, particularly in isolated or mountainous regions of the southern United States, use phrases such as of a night or of an evening in place of Standard English at night or in the evening, as in We’d go hunting of an evening.”
(www.englishforums.com/English/CorrectGrammar)
The expression "of an evening" and the like would have been standard usage in Old English - by which I mean the language as it was in the Anglo-Saxon era. OE as you may know was a language which often used inflection of the noun without needing a preposition and in all of the MS I have seen the case form used for this expression is genitive - which in ME employs "of". So in OE one would use "æfenes" the genitive case form of "æfen"