beared (contd)

In my previous blog (here), I discussed the Guardian on-line edition which included the headline:

Osborne warns cuts will have to be beared

Later in the day, this headline was changed. Look at the new version:I guess it wasn't just me who noticed the use of the non-standard beared.

It is interesting to note, however, that the headline writer has still baulked at using born, and has chosen to use an active structure instead, even though this makes the headline rather hard to understand. To me, it would be best as:

Osborne warns cuts will have to be born

In the past, The Guardian was notorious for its typographical errors, and Private Eye always referred to it as The Grauniad (the joke being that they couldn't even spell their own name correctly).

But whether we regard beared as the sort of error that The Guardian is famed for, or as an innovative usage that avoids the irregular verb form born, it is still indicative of the kind of regularising change taking place all the time in English.