On: Facebook’s code quality problem (2015)

[yladiz]

Is "hold forth" an older or less common phrase? I don't know if I've ever run into it, and I wouldn't have guessed initially that is its definition.

[emodendroket → yladiz]

Well, judge for yourself.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=speak+at+lengt...

[jamessb → emodendroket]

It's a phrase that I've usually encountered in the past tense. Google Ngrams shows that in 1800 "held forth" was used about three times as frequently as "hold forth" [1], but this ratio decreased as both uses became less common.

[1]: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=held+forth%2Ch...

[emodendroket → jamessb]

I don't know a lot about the ngram corpus, but assuming there's lots of fiction everything will be skewed toward the past tense.

[FroshKiller → yladiz]

Here is a new submission that includes a use of "hold forth" as well: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13858516

[FroshKiller → yladiz]

It is a bit old. I've seen it in English sources from the 19th century. I think it's common in literature for that period though less common now.