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 Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:43 am Died of or from? |
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die of: followed by some disease. e.g. He died of lung cancer.
die from: followed by something other than disease. e.g. He died from a car accident. |
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Haihao
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| Sat Jul 19, 2008 10:59 am Died of or from? |
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| Haihao wrote: | die of: followed by some disease. e.g. He died of lung cancer.
die from: followed by something other than disease. e.g. He died from a car accident. |
I would say that you can die from an illness, too.
Jed died from cancer
And you can also die of an accident.
Jed died of an accident
I would argue that 'of' is more common, but I couldn't really find any source to get some feedback.
Here's what dictionary.com says - "To die is to become dead from any cause and in any circumstances. It is the simplest, plainest, and most direct word for this idea, and is used figuratively of anything that has once displayed activity."
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Ralf
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| Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:12 am Died of or from? |
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I think that's right, Ralf. I'd just like to think about the difference between the two.
IMO, "Jed died from cancer" suggests cancer is an indirect factor to cause his death. Jed suffered from cancer for some time, which made him, say, asthenic, then he died of asthenia. Likewise or unlikewise, "Jed died of an accident" indicates a direct cause of his death, which is the accident. At the same time I agree my early post is just of rule of thumb.
BTW, is it not similar to 'make of' and 'make from'? |
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Haihao
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| Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:31 am Died of or from? |
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| Haihao wrote: | I think that's right, Ralf. I'd just like to think about the difference between the two.
IMO, "Jed died from cancer" suggests cancer is an indirect factor to cause his death. Jed suffered from cancer for some time, which made him, say, asthenic, then he died of asthenia. Likewise or unlikewise, "Jed died of an accident" indicates a direct cause of his death, which is the accident. At the same time I agree my early post is just of rule of thumb. |
Hi Haihao,
Very good observation 
| Quote: | | BTW, is it not similar to 'make of' and 'make from'? |
Another good question. If you say 'made from' you're implying that the material 'comes from' something. A table can either be made of wood or made from wood.
You could say that something is made from glass, but you should say that windows are made of glass.
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Ralf
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| Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:53 am Died of or from? |
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| Thank you, Ralf. Just out of curiosity, if you say a table made from wood, then should the table be of no appearance of any natural wood? e.g. made from some reprocessed wood which is actually not wood any more. |
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Haihao
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| Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:20 pm Died of or from? |
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To continue if I may - 'made from' suggests to me either that there is more than one ingredient. If someone said : This is made from wood ... my inclination/expectation would be and what else? or maybe 'wood' taken from the forests in ****. Made of wood to me is straight to the point - it's 100% genuine wood and nothing else.
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Alan
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| Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:40 pm Died of or from? |
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| Thank you, Alan! And it's so nice to see your comment again. |
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Haihao
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| "yes, it is" or "yes, they are"? | so few people OR such few people |
