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I am reposting this from a comment that I made to an answer of a similar question.Prior to the 1970’s, gender identity was believed to be a product of social influence. This led to the practice of assigning gender at birth to individuals who were born with indiscriminate sex organs or who were involved in accidents at very young ages, such as botched circumcisions. It was believed that with surgery and hormones any child could be successfully raised any gender. Only after they ruined the lives of these individuals did anyone realize that this was a dangerous and consequential misconception. Since then extensive research has found NO evidence that social factors play a role in our gender identity. Rather, gender identity is a product of our brain sex, which is determined during fetal development. In the mid 1980’s, it was first revealed that there are multiple areas between male and female brains that differ in size and function. We can see a person’s brain sex by looking at certain areas in their brain and this has been done and continues to be done using new brain imaging techniques.A common misconception is that ‘biological sex’ is determined solely by our chromosomes. However, chromosomes are only one of three components that comprise our biological sex, the other two are brain sex and gonadal sex. The components that make up our biological sex are distinct between females and males. Each develop at discrete times during pregnancy and can therefore develop incongruently. Brain sex is arguably the most important aspect of our biological sex, because our brains are who we are. We all begin development with feminine brains and bodies. The degree of masculinization the brain undergoes during development in response to varying hormone levels in the womb determines our gender identity. This variation creates the spectrum of gender identity: a continuum with two ends, one end female and the other male.In most animals, including humans, males and females have different sex chromosomes. During fertilization, each parent donates a copy of one of their two sex chromosomes. Females donate one of their two female chromosomes (XX) while males can either donate their female chromosome (X) or male chromosome (Y). Therefore chromosomal sex is determined by the father. While that may seem like a lot of “power” for the father to have, the effect of hormones released during pregnancy can result in significant modifications of the genetically intended sex. I say “intended” because our DNA is essentially a recipe in which our sex chromosomes are the instructions for making a female or male individual. For instance, I can begin preparing cookies with a particular cookie recipe but if I forget a step, miscalculate a measurement or baking time, or simply decide to alter the recipe, the result won’t fit the specifications of the recipe and the outcome could vary drastically. The same concept applies in the “making” of a baby during pregnancy. Morphologically, all embryos, regardless of DNA, begin with a female brain and body. In other words, female is the “default” sex and all male characteristics are derived from female characteristics. Thus men have nipples, the penis is a masculinized clitoris, the ovaries become testes, and male brain traits diverge from female ones. Sexual differentiation occurs at two distinct periods during development. Reproductive organs and genitalia undergo sexual differentiation during the first 6-12 weeks of pregnancy. In the presence of male chromosomes and the absence of interference, both the mother and fetus will release the appropriate types and amounts of hormones, which will act upon the fetus’s reproductive organs and “masculinize” them. After this and before the sexual differentiation of the brain, the fetus will have a masculinized body and a feminine brain. Sexual development of the brain does not occur until the second trimester of pregnancy when, in the absence of interference, hormones act upon the fetus’s brain to masculinize the appropriate areas. If the fetus’s sex chromosomes are female the masculinization at these distinct time periods should not occur. This interaction of necessary components on vital timelines is what makes the process susceptible to modification.Human development is a complex and delicate process. Different hormones, exposure times, and fetal receptiveness can interfere with sexual development. Chromosomal mutations, stress, kidney dysfunction, hormone treatment, drug use, famine, and vigorous exercise have also been found to affect sexual development. For instance, exposure to either the stress hormone cortisol or female hormones at certain times during development can have masculinizing effects on the fetus. Therefore, if a mother experiences significant stress during one of the vital times of sexual development, a fetus who is genetically female can develop a male brain and or body! In fact, by manipulating hormones during embryonic development Dr. S.M. Breedlove’s lab has produced rats that have the brain of one sex and the genitalia of another. Pollutants, malnutrition, diet, and many other things can affect our production and metabolism of hormones. Several medications when taken during pregnancy have been shown to increase the risk of giving birth to a child with transsexuality, including the miscarriage prevention drug, DES, given to over 2 million women between 1939 and 1960. In addition, prenatal exposure to contaminants, analgesics, pesticides, alcohol and nicotine have all been found to affect sexual development.Transsexuality is not a psychological disorder or an aberrant choice. Transsexuals do not have abnormal brains; they simply have a normal brain sex that differs from their gonadal sex. Some transsexuals enjoy living between both genders and it is likely that they have brains in which some areas were masculinized while others were not. The misbelief that transsexuality is a psychological or social condition phenomenon perpetuates the idea that trans people are different simply because they are confused, were abused or choose to be different. A consequence of such ignorance is a lack of empathy for trans people, and the social acceptance of their ridicule and discrimination. When society understands that this condition is a product of incongruent brain and body anatomy rather than a deviant behavior, trans people will fare far better.One way to minimize harmful social misconceptions is to choose more accurate terminology. The prefix “trans” means across, and “sex”, refers to the biological state of being male or female. Therefore, transsexual means ‘across sexes’, which is the best familiar term currently in use, but is not the most appropriate. Crossing the biological sexes infers going from one side to another, when in fact transsexuals possess facets of both sexes. Among many neuroscientists, transsexuality is more appropriately termed “neuro-anatomic intersexuality” meaning the brain and body anatomy are between the sexes. Gender, refers to the social and cultural states of being male or female. 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TL;DR/Short version: Communities are groups of nodes within a network that are more densely connected to one another than to other nodes. Modularity is a metric that quantifies the quality of an assignment of nodes to communities by evaluating how much more densely connected the nodes within a community are compared to how connected they would be, on average, in a suitably defined random network. The Louvain method of community detection is an algorithm for detecting communities in networks that relies upon a heuristic for maximizing the modularity. The method consists of repeated application of two steps. The first step is a "greedy" assignment of nodes to communities, favoring local optimizations of modularity. The second step is the definition of a new coarse-grained network in terms of the communities found in the first step. These two steps are repeated until no further modularity-increasing reassignments of communities are possible. The Louvain method achieves modularities comparable to pre-existing algorithms, typically in less time, so it enables the study of much larger networks. It also generally reveals a hierarchy of communities at different scales, and this hierarchical perspective can be useful for understanding the global functioning of a network. Meanwhile, there are certain pitfalls to interpreting the community structure uncovered by the Louvain Method; these difficulties are actually shared by all modularity optimization algorithms.I strongly recommend reading the original paper on the Louvain method [1]. It's fairly short, easy to read, and will give you a solid understanding of the algorithm. Incidentally, one of the originators of the Louvain Method (Renaud Lambiotte) seems to have a Quora account; it would be awesome to get his perspective on recent developments and applications.Long version: Below, I'm going to give my own description of the Louvain method. To hopefully not be too redundant with the original paper, I'm going to also focus on background, context, applications, and follow-up work. Covering all that ground makes this answer pretty lengthy, so please just skip to the sections that interest you. In particular, if you're familiar with the problem of community detection and the role of modularity in community finding algorithms, you can skip to the Louvain method section below.Also, before I begin, I'll point out that my discussion will exclusively consider the case of undirected, but possibly weighted, links. The Louvain method has been extended to the directed case, so interested readers should seek out the relevant literature.Motivating the Problem of Community DetectionA fairly common feature of complex networks is that they consist of sets of nodes that interact more with one another than with nodes outside the set. Social networks, for instance, might consist of tightly knit communities of friends with rarer friendship ties between different communities. In protein interaction networks, certain groups of proteins interact with one another more frequently than they do with proteins in other groups. If you map out a network of projects going on in a large company, certain projects will likely have more conceptual overlap and mutual dependency than others; this network structure will hopefully be mirrored to some degree by the organizational structure within the company.In 1962, H.A. Simon proposed that this type of community structure might be a defining characteristic of complex systems, or at least those like the protein interaction network, in which many interacting constituent elements adaptively organize to achieve some higher-order function (e.g., the functioning of an organism). His reasoning was that individual actors have a much higher chance of collectively achieving a higher-order function if that function can be iteratively achieved by constructing intermediate stable forms (also called communities or modules) that achieve simpler functions. The first-order intermediate forms would be communities in terms of the original nodes, but then interactions between these first-order communities could generate second-order communities that accomplish somewhat more complicated functions, and so on. In this way, a hierarchical structure can emerge in complex adaptive systems [2]. However, even when there isn't necessarily adaptive pressure towards achieving some higher-order function (as in the case of some social networks), community structure is a common observed feature of complex networks.When we're handed a data set describing a network, we typically don't know what the underlying community structure is. We often don't even know how many first-order communities we should be looking for, let alone how many hierarchical levels of communities we should consider. Meanwhile, for the reasons given above, the community and hierarchical structures are often very useful for understanding the overall functioning of the complex system. This motivates the search for good community detection algorithms.Definition of ModularityOne popular class of community detection algorithms seeks to optimize the so-called modularity of the community assignment. Modularity is a metric that was proposed by Newman and Girvan in reference [3]. It quantifies the quality of a community assignment by measuring how much more dense the connections are within communities compared to what they would be in a particular type of random network.There are two mathematical definitions of modularity that you'll frequently encounter. The first is the one used in the original paper on the Louvain method [1]:[math]Q = \frac{1}{2m} \sum_{i,j} \left[A_{ij} - \frac{k_i k_j}{2m}\right] \delta(c_i, c_j)[/math]Here, [math]A[/math] is the usual adjacency matrix, [math]k_i = \sum_j A_{ij}[/math] is the total link weight penetrating node [math]i[/math], and [math]m = \frac{1}{2}\sum_{i,j} A_{ij}[/math] is the total link weight in the network overall. The Kronecker delta [math]\delta(c_i, c_j)[/math] is [math]1[/math] when nodes [math]i[/math] and [math]j[/math] are assigned to the same community and [math]0[/math] otherwise. Consider one of the terms in the sum. Remember that [math]k_i[/math] is the total link weight penetrating node [math]i[/math], and note that [math]\frac{k_j}{2m}[/math] is the average fraction of this weight that would be assigned to node [math]j[/math], if node [math]i[/math] assigned its link weight randomly to other nodes in proportion to their own link weights. Then, [math]A_{ij} - \frac{k_i k_j}{2m}[/math] measures how strongly nodes [math]i[/math] and [math]j[/math] are in the real network, compared to how strongly connected we would expect them to be in a random network of the type described above.The other definition of modularity that you'll see is the one proposed in the paper by Newman and Girvan [3]. They defined a matrix (let's call it [math]B[/math], though Newman and Girvan used the symbol [math]e[/math]), where [math]B_{c_1 c_2}[/math] denotes the fraction of all edge weight in the network that connects community [math]c_1[/math] to community [math]c_2[/math]. They also defined [math]W_{c_1} = \sum_{c_2} B_{c_1 c_2}[/math] as the total edge weight penetrating community [math]c_1[/math]. Then, they defined the modularity as:[math]Q = \sum_{c} \left[B_{cc} - W^2_c\right][/math]It's pretty easy to show that this definition is equivalent to the one from the Louvain method paper, but I won't write out the steps here.Modularity Optimization AlgorithmsReturning to the first definition of modularity above, the problem of modularity optimization can be thought of as assigning communities such that the elements of the sum that contribute are as positive as possible (remember that the delta function kills terms in the sum corresponding to pairs of nodes that belong to different communities). The problem is that you can have situations where it makes sense to put nodes [math]1[/math] and [math]2[/math] in the same community and to put [math]2[/math] and [math]3[/math] in the same community, but where [math]A_{13} - \frac{k_1 k_3}{2m}[/math] is very negative, indicating that nodes [math]1[/math] and [math]3[/math] really shouldn't be in the same community. This is a simple example of a kind of frustration that makes the modularity optimization problem really hard.Indeed, the modularity optimization problem is actually NP-hard, and that has motivated searches for heuristic approaches that typically do a good job at finding high modularity community assignments with more scalable complexity [1]. The modularity maximization algorithms that I'm aware of typically fall into one the following categories [3]:agglomerative: where you iteratively group nodes into communitiesdivisive: where you progressively remove links from the network, and the depleted network reveals good community assignmentssimulated annealing: where you introduce an artificial "temperature" and perform Metropolis-like Monte Carlo updates while gradually lowering the temperature. Here, you take [math]-Q[/math] to be the energy function for the system. The proposed moves can consist of both agglomerative and divisive steps [4]spectral: where an eigenvector of the so-called modularity matrix encodes the community structureIn their original 2003 modularity paper [3], Newman and Girvan proposed a divisive algorithm for modularity optimization. The intuition behind their algorithm can be motivated by the following diagram:To the naked eye, it's obvious that this network consists of two densely connected communities that are only linked to one another by the single link connecting nodes [math]5[/math] and [math]12[/math]. That link has been highlighted in blue to emphasize the special role it plays. If that single link were to be cut, it would completely decouple the two communities. A metric that distinguishes the blue link from the others is the edge betweenness centrality. That link lies on all geodesic paths from the community on the left to the community on the right, so it will have the highest betweenness centrality of any edge in the graph. More generally, edges with high betweenness will tend to be those that link communities rather than those that connect nodes within communities. Therefore, Newman and Girvan proposed iteratively removing the edges with the highest betweenness centralities. After each removal, the betweenness of all the edges needs to be recomputed to figure out which edge to remove next. The procedure can be stopped at any point, with the connected components of the edge-depleted graph giving the communities. You can continue the Newman-Girvan procedure until the network is fully depleted, computing the modularity of the community assignment at each step, and ultimately choosing the intermediate step that maximized the modularity. This process takes time [math]O(N_n N^2_{\ell})[/math], where [math]N_n[/math] is the number of nodes and [math]N_{\ell}[/math] is the number of links in the network. If the networks under consideration are sparse so that [math]N_{\ell} \propto N_n[/math], this algorithm is [math]O(N^3_n)[/math]Between 2003 (when the Newman-Girvan paper came out) and 2008 (when the Louvain method was proposed), several faster modularity optimizing algorithms were proposed by:Clauset, Newman, & Moore (CNM) [5]Pons and Latapy (PL) [6]Wakita and Tsurami (WT) [7]All of these methods are agglomerative, some of them run in close to linear time (in the number of nodes, or by the assumption of sparsity, in the number of links) on sparse networks, and it was these methods that the Louvain method's originators benchmarked their algorithm against (see the table at the end of the next section).Louvain Method of Community DetectionNow, I'm going to illustrate how the Louvain Method works by applying it to a "connected caveman graph." This is a network where you begin with [math]N_{cl}[/math] fully-connected cliques of [math]M[/math] nodes each. Next, you arrange these cliques in a circle. Then, you take one random link from each clique and rewire it so that the clique is connected to its nearest clockwise neighbor. You do this once for each clique, and you end up with something that looks like this:All links in this initial network have unit weight. This is the test network with which we'll explore the Louvain Method below. The "intuitive partition" here consists of the six communities of five nodes each that we've put in by hand.At the beginning of the Louvain Method, we assign each node to its own community, so in the connected caveman network above, there are 30 initial communities, each containing one node.Stage 1: Community ReassignmentsIn the first stage of the Louvain Method, we iterate through each of the nodes in the network. For each node, we consider the change in modularity if we remove the node from its current community and place it in the community of one of its neighbors. We compute the modularity change for each of the node's neighbors. If none of these modularity changes are positive, we keep the node in its current community. If some of the modularity changes are positive, we move the node into the community for which the modularity change is most positive. Ties can be resolved arbitrarily. We repeat this process for each node until one pass through all nodes yields no community assignment changes.For the initial connected caveman graph, we can figure out what will happen in the first few steps of this community reassignment change by hand. In my implementation of the Louvain Method, the first node considered was [math]29[/math], which is connected to nodes [math]25[/math]-[math]28[/math]. If we were to merge nodes [math]25[/math] and [math]29[/math] into the same community, that would correspond to activating the terms [math]A_{25,29} - \frac{k_{25} k_{29}}{2m}[/math] and [math]A_{29,25} - \frac{k_{25} k_{29}}{2m}[/math] in the sum above. Each of these have value [math]1 - \frac{25}{120} = \frac{19}{24}[/math]. So performing the community reassignment will boost the modularity by [math]\frac{19}{12}[/math]. Actually, all of the proposed mergers for node 29 will have this same modularity boost, so we can accept any one of them. My implementation assigns node [math]29[/math] to the same community as node [math]25[/math] and then moves on to consider another randomly selected node.Actually, in the initial graph, merging any pair of neighboring nodes will increase modularity by the amount that I calculated in the previous paragraph. In particular, this will be true even for pairs like nodes [math]10[/math] and [math]8[/math], which intuitively belong to different communities. This means that, in the initial stages of the community reassignment phase, pairs of nodes like this have a possibility of being assigned to the same community. It's an instructive exercise to think through how mistakes like this are remediated as the community reassignment stage progresses, and I encourage you to do so.Here are the community assignments that my implementation of the Louvain Method finds after the first community identification stage:As you can see, the algorithm has already discovered the "intuitive" communities, which is unsurprising, since this is a rather simple network.Stage 2: Coarse GrainingThe next stage in the Louvain Method is to use the communities that were discovered in the community reassignment stage to define a new, coarse-grained network. In this network, the newly discovered communities are the nodes. The edge weight between the nodes representing two communities is just the sum of the edge weights between the constituent, lower-level nodes of each community. The links within each community generate self-loops in the new, coarse-grained network.In the simple connected caveman network that we're studying, there's only one, unit-weight link connecting neighboring communities, so the links between the coarse-grained communities also have unit weight. If there were two or more links between communities, the new coarse-grained link would have weight equal to the sum of all the lower-level links. Meanwhile, within each community, there are [math]\frac{5 \times 4}{2} - 1 = 9[/math] unit-weight links, so the self-loops have weight [math]9[/math]. Here's what the coarse-grained network will look like:In this graph, the black numbers associated with the links indicate edge weights, but the white numbers on the nodes are just labels for the communities. As a side note, I had to draw in the self-loops by hand because NetworkX, while generally an awesome Python package for doing these types of analyses, doesn't appear to draw them.If you're writing your own implementation of the Louvain Method, you'll want to be careful about how you're assigning the diagonal matrix elements of the adjacency matrix (corresponding to the self-loops). To be able to consistently apply the modularity formulae above, you actually want to double the diagonal matrix elements. This means that, for the graph above, the diagonal elements will be [math]18[/math]. It's worth thinking through why this choice is appropriate for preserving the interpretation of modularity that I mentioned above. A good consistency check for debugging your implementation is that, when you construct your coarse-grained network, [math]m = \frac{1}{2}\sum_{i,j} A_{ij}[/math] shouldn't change.Repeated Iteration of Stages 1 and 2The rest of the Louvain Method consists of repeated application of stages 1 and 2. By applying stage 1 (the community reassignment phase) to the coarse-grained graph, you find a second tier of communities of communities of nodes. Then, in the next application of stage 2, you define a new coarse-grained graph at this higher-level of the hierarchy. You keep going like this until an application of stage 1 yields no reassignments. At that point, repeated application of stages 1 and 2 will never yield any more modularity-optimizing changes, so the process is complete.For the connected caveman graph, the process terminates on the second community reassignment stage. We can see why if we propose a merger of two communities in the coarse-grained graph above. This would result in a modularity change of [math]2 * \left[1 - \frac{20*20}{120}\right] = -\frac{14}{3}[/math], so no merger will be accepted. As an exercise, I'd encourage you to think about what happens if the original caveman graph had more than [math]20[/math] cliques. You can work this out analytically, or you can implement the Louvain Method yourself and test it out. My own implementation of the Louvain Method took less than 200 lines of Python code, and I'm not particularly good at keeping my Python code (or my Quora answers) brief. Working through the 21-clique test case, whether you do it analytically or numerically, will give you some intuition for the final section of this answer: "Possible Pitfalls of Modularity Maximization."In the original paper on the Louvain Method, the authors benchmarked their new algorithm against some of the other modularity optimization algorithms that I mentioned above. Here's a table from the paper showing that the Louvain Method achieved similar modularities in typically faster time [1]:Real-World Applications of the Louvain MethodOne of the applications reported in the original Louvain Method paper was a study of a large Belgian phone call network in which nodes represented customers and weighted links represented the number of phone calls between two customers over a six-month period. The network had 2.6 million nodes and 6.3 million links. The Louvain Method revealed a hierarchy of six levels of communities. At the top level of this hierarchy, the communities representing more than 10,000 customers were strongly segregated by primary language. All except one of these communities had an 85% or greater majority of either French or Dutch speakers. The sole community with a more equitable distribution was positioned at the interface between French and Dutch clusters in the top-level coarse-grained network. Here's what the authors had to say about this community [1]:These groups of people, where language ceases to be a discriminating factor, might possibly play a crucial role for the integration of the country and for the emergence of consensus between the communities. One may indeed wonder what would happen if the community at the interface between the two language clusters... was to be removed.Since 2008, the Louvain Method has found a wide range of applications in analyzing real-world networks. Several of these can be found on the "official website" for the method:analysis of online social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Youtube, and LiveJournalanalysis of collaboration communities in citation networksanalysis of a network of retail transactionsOne application that I want to call out independently, just because I found it particularly interesting, is the study of brain networks using the Louvain Method [9]. This is pretty far outside my expertise, so I won't pretend to understand all the details, but the authors of that study found similar community structure across the brains of 18 different people and modules that made sense from a functional perspective.Possible Pitfalls of Modularity MaximizationThe Louvain Method, and modularity optimization algorithms more generally, have found wide application across many domains. However, fundamental problems with these algorithms have also been identified. To close out this answer, I want to discuss some of these difficulties. Here's a quick introduction to two:The "resolution" limit: If you worked out the 21-clique caveman graph example that I suggested above, you would have noticed that for larger networks, the Louvain Method doesn't stop with the "intuitive" communities. Instead, there's a second pass through the community modification and coarse-graining stages, in which several of the intuitive communities are merged together. This is unfortunately a general problem with modularity optimization algorithms. They have trouble detecting small communities in large networks. It's a virtue of the Louvain Method that something close to the intuitive community structure is available as an intermediate step in the process.The "degeneracy" problem: There are typically an exponentially large (in network size) number of community assignments with modularities close to the maximum. This can be a severe problem because, in the presence of a large number of high modularity solutions, it's (a) hard to find the global maximum and (b) difficult to determine if the global maximum is truly more scientifically important than local maxima that achieve similar modularity. Good et al. showed that the different locally optimal community assignments can have quite different structural properties [10].These problems are discussed and studied at length in reference [10]. The authors of that paper concluded with this cautionary note about modularity maximization:...modules identified through modularity maximization should be treated with caution in all but the most straightforward cases. That is, if the network is relatively small and contains only a few non-hierarchical and non-overlapping modular structures, the degeneracy problem is less severe and modularity maximization methods are likely to perform well. In other cases, modularity maximization can only provide a rough sketch of some parts of a network's modular organization.References[1] V.D. Blondel et al. Fast unfolding of communities in large networks. J. Stat. Mech. P10008 (2008).[2] H.A. Simon. The Architecture of Complexity. Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 106-6: 467 (1962).[3] M.E.J. Newman and M. Girvan. Finding and evaluating community structure in networks. Phys. Rev. E. 69: 026113 (2004).[4] R. Giumerà and L.A.N. Amaral. Functional cartography of complex metabolic networks. Nature. 433: 895 (2005).[5] A. Clauset, M.E.J. Newman, and C. Moore. Finding community structure in very large networks. Phys. Rev. E 70, 066111 (2004).[6] P. Pons and M. Latapy. Computing communities in large networks using random walks. Journal of Graph Algorithms and Applications. 10: 191 (2006).[7] K. Wakita and T. Tsurami. Finding Community Structure in Mega-scale Social Networks. arXiv: 0702048 (2007).[8] V.D. Blondel. Louvain method website.[9] D. Meunier et al. Hierarchical Modularity in Human Brain Functional Networks. Frontiers in Neuroinformatics. 3: 37 (2009).[10] B.H. Good, Y-A de Montjove, A. Clauset. The performance of modularity maximization in practical contexts. Phys. Rev. E 81, 046106 (2010).

I’ll take a stab at this question (“How should I analyze the grammatical structure of the sentence ‘It's not healthy the way she clings to the past’?”). I’ve found a lot of instances of “It was amazing that . . .” in edited prose.The “it” is either an expletive (no, not that kind—see Dummy pronoun - Wikipedia) or “an anticipatory subject of a verb whose logical subject is another word or phrase or a clause” (M-W Unabridged).[*]For discussions on the two, see the dictionary entries attached later. [****] (Yes, tl;dr.)The true subject, “the way [that] she clings to the past,” is postponed, perhaps for a little “antici. . .pation.”[**] That brings us to the suppressed conjunctional “that.” See the example sentences in the following two definitions from Merriam-Webster:M-W Collegiate Under “that, conjunction”(2) —used as a function word to introduce a subordinate clause that is anticipated by the expletive it occurring as subject of the verb<it is unlikely that he'll be in>M-W Unabridged under “that, conjunction”1 a (2) — used as a function word to introduce a subordinate clause anticipated by the expletive it occurring as subject of a form of the copulative verb be when what follows the copulative verb is an adverb or adverbial phrase logically modifying the verb of the clause introduced by that<it was there that I first met her><it was almost as if in entreaty or reproach that she put her next question — Walter de la Mare>And then we get to “the way [that]” after an expletive or dummy “it.” “The way that” seems to be a common way to get around using conjunctional “how.”In short (!!!! Can you hear me cacchinate?), we have a dummy or anticipatory “it” followed by “is,” and adjective, and the true subject, which starts with “the way” and is further defined by a noun clause. (Does that mean “epexegesis”? [***]Anyway, you’ll find the dictionary entries I’ve been referring to here.[****] I’m too lazy to clean them up at this point. Is there a doctor in the house?[*] Linguists seem to be changing their minds over “it” in first place in a clause—so ask a linguist, for example, what the “it” is doing in “It is raining.” I once knew something about clefts, but that was years ago.[**] Rocky Horror - I See You Shiver with Anticipation [Full][***] From M-W Collegiate:ep·ex·e·ge·sis noun /ˌe-ˌpek-sə-ˈjē-səs/plural ep·ex·e·ge·ses (audio pronunciation) /ˌe-ˌpek-sə-ˈjē-ˌsēz/: additional explanation or explanatory matter— ep·ex·e·get·i·cal (audio pronunciation) /ˌe-ˌpek-sə-ˈje-ti-kəl/ or ep·ex·e·get·ic (audio pronunciation) /ˌe-ˌpek-sə-ˈje-tik/ adjective— ep·ex·e·get·i·cal·ly (audio pronunciation) /ˌe-ˌpek-sə-ˈje-ti-k(ə-)lē/ adverbOrigin of EPEXEGESISGreek epexēgēsis, from epi- + exēgēsis exegesisFirst Known Use: circa 1577[****]M-W Unabridged under “it, pronoun”:a — used as an expletive subject of an impersonal verb that expresses a simple condition or an action without direct or implied reference to an agent in statements or questions about (1) the weather<it is raining><it is getting cold><is it a pretty day — Agnes S. Turnbull>or (2) the time<it is eleven o'clock><it is late>or divisions or points of time (as seasons, holidays, generalized parts of day or night)<it's only a few months until spring — C. W. Morton><it will soon be Christmas><it is getting on toward evening><it will dawn early tomorrow>or (3) physical or mental conditions<it hurts when I look at a bright light><it makes him sad if he thinks about her too much>or (4) an extent of distance or space<it is five miles to the next town>b — used as an expletive subject in other statements or questions having an undefined subject<if it hadn't been for you, I don't know what I would have done><they have what it takes>3a (1) — used as an anticipatory subject of a verb whose logical subject is another word or a phrase or a clause<it is me><it is he who is responsible><it is the mayor they like><it is well you found out in time><it is necessary to repeat the whole thing><it is said the danger is great><it is a wonderful vacation spot, that town><it happened that they were away>; often used as subject of a periphrasis to shift emphasis from a logical subject to some other part of a statement<it was in this city that the treaty was signed>M-W Collegiate under “it, pronoun”:2—used as subject of an impersonal verb that expresses a condition or action without reference to an agent<it is raining>3a —used as anticipatory subject or object of a verb<it is necessary to repeat the whole thing>; often used to shift emphasis to a part of a statement other than the subject<it was in this city that the treaty was signed>M-W Collegiate Under “that, conjunction”(2) —used as a function word to introduce a subordinate clause that is anticipated by the expletive it occurring as subject of the verb<it is unlikely that he'll be in>M-W Unabridged under “that, conjunction”1 a (2) — used as a function word to introduce a subordinate clause anticipated by the expletive it occurring as subject of a form of the copulative verb be when what follows the copulative verb is an adverb or adverbial phrase logically modifying the verb of the clause introduced by that<it was there that I first met her><it was almost as if in entreaty or reproach that she put her next question — Walter de la Mare>Collegiate, “way, noun”: state of affairs : condition, state<that's the way things are>OED, under“it, pron., adj., and n.1”Semantically empty subjects.As a semantically empty or non-referential subject, the neuter pronoun is already found frequently in Old English in some types of sentence, e.g. in statements of weather (see sense A. 3a), but is much rarer in other types of sentence (e.g. existential sentences: see sense A. 2b). Use of the pronoun as empty subject does not become obligatory until Middle English, when the word order becomes more fixed and the slot of the subject requires filling. In Old English and early Middle English word order can also be more freely employed for the purpose of highlighting elements of the sentence, and therefore constructions of the kind covered at sense A. 4b are not usually required.A. pron. The subjective and objective case of the third person singular neuter pronoun.I. Subjective uses.1. The thing previously mentioned, implied, or easily identified.b. As anticipatory subject, representing the topic of a sentence, when the logical subject is a noun, esp. with attributes. Now poetic, rhetorical, and colloquial.In colloquial use the verb is sometimes repeated, e.g. it is a country of vast extent, is China: cf. be v. 9f.OE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Cambr. Univ. Libr.) i. Introd. 26 Hit is welig þis ealond on wæstmum.c1225 (▸?c1200) St. Juliana (Bodl.) 99 (MED) Hit nis nan eðelich þing, þe refschipe of rome.c1400 (▸?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Laud) (1952) l. 4147 (MED) Jt shal be wel dere abouȝth, Þe tol þat was in Grece souȝth.?a1475 (▸?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1865) I. 109 The cyte..where hit is schewede the palice of Melchisedech.a1500 (▸a1460) Towneley Plays (1994) I. xiv. 172 Lord, it is sothe all that we say.1523 Ld. Berners tr. J. Froissart Cronycles I. clxix. 207 It canne nat be recorded the gret feest and chere that they of the Cytie..made to the prince.a1533 Ld. Berners tr. Arthur of Brytayn (?1560) cx. sig. F*viv It greued her hert right sore thassurance of her & of Arthur.1805 Scott Lay of Last Minstrel i. xii. 17 What may it be, the heavy sound?1841 H. W. Longfellow Goblet of Life v Above the lowly plants it towers, The fennel with its yellow flowers.1912 A. Brown My Love & I xviii. 167 At last it came, the news unheralded by any personal note, but staring out boldly from the evening paper.1985 L. Lochhead True Confessions 6 It's nice a wee taste of haggis now and again.3. As the non-referential subject of a verb or impersonal statement, expressing action or a condition of things simply, without reference to any agent.a. In statements of weather.OE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Corpus Oxf.) ii. x. 134 Swylc swa..sie fyr onælæd & þin heall gewyrmed, & hit rine & sniwe & styrme ute.OE West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) vii. 27 Þa rinde hit [L. descendit pluvia] & þær comun flod & bleowun windas.lOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Bodl.) (2009) I. xxi. 285 On sumera hit bið wearm and on wintra ceald.c1275 (▸?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1963) l. 1943 Þre dæȝes hit rinde blod.c1300 St. Michael (Harl.) in T. Wright Pop. Treat. Sci. (1841) 137 Hor-frost cometh whan hit is cold.c1330 Seven Sages (Auch.) (1933) l. 2137 Sche saiþ hit haþ ben þonder.a1450 Seven Sages (Cambr. Dd.1.17) (1845) l. 2213 (MED) Hyt raynyd and lygnyd and thonryd fast.1526 Bible (Tyndale) John xii. f. cxl Then sayde the people that stode by and herde, it thoundreth [1611 King James said that it thundered].1638 R. Baker tr. J. L. G. de Balzac New Epist. II. 45 Where it is counted for a wonder, that..it was cold or snowed.1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World ii. 13 It rained very hard.1719 D. Defoe Life Robinson Crusoe 10 By this Time it blew a terrible Storm indeed.1766 P. Thicknesse Observ. Customs Fr. Nation 106 It blows cats and dogs, as the sailors say.1820 Keats Eve of St. Agnes in Lamia & Other Poems 83 St. Agnes' Eve—Ah, bitter chill it was!1846 Dickens Pictures from Italy 249 It is now intensely cold.1848 P. Hawker Diary (1893) II. 292 It blew great guns and poured cats and dogs.1903 W. C. Edgar Story Grain Wheat ii. 24 In a few days it thawed again.1930 J. Dos Passos 42nd Parallel i. 77 Outside it was raining pitchforks.2004 Trail May 30/2 (caption) Chuff me, it's freezing.b. In statements about the time of day, season of the year, etc.OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Exod. (Claud.) x. 9 We willað..offrian wurðlice urum Drihtne, for ðam þe hit is halig tid [L. est enim sollemnitas].OE West Saxon Gospels: Luke (Corpus Cambr.) xxiv. 29 Hit æfenlæcð & se dæg wæs ahyld [L. advesperascit et inclinata est iam dies].OE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Tiber. B.i) anno 979 Þy ilcan geare wæs gesewen blodig wolcen..; þæt..on mistlice beamas wæs gehiwod þonne hit dagian wolde.OE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Tiber. B.iv) anno 1006 Ða hit winterlæhte, þa færde se fyrd ham.?c1200 Ormulum (Burchfield transcript) l. 8918 Till þatt itt comm till efenn.c1275 (▸?a1216) Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) (1935) 332 Ac þu singest allelonge niȝt, From eve fort hit is dai liȝt.c1330 Seven Sages (Auch.) (1933) l. 1495 (MED) Sire, vp, vp, hit is dai!c1400 (▸?c1390) Sir Gawain & Green Knight (1940) l. 284 (MED) Hit is ȝol & nwe ȝer.a1425 (▸?c1350) Ywain & Gawain (1964) l. 596 It neghed nere the nyght.a1500 (▸?c1400) Earl of Toulous l. 460 in W. H. French & C. B. Hale Middle Eng. Metrical Romances (1930) I. 397 (MED) When hyt dawed, he rose vp soone.1526 Bible (Tyndale) John x. f. cxxxvj Hit was at Ierusalem the feaste of the dedicacion, and itt was wynter.a1616 Shakespeare Henry V (1623) iii. vii. 2 Would it were day.a1616 Shakespeare Henry V (1623) iii. vii. 6 Will it neuer be Morning?1678 J. Bunyan Pilgrim's Progress 44 It was almost night.1727 J. Thomson Summer 31 'Tis raging Noon.a1771 T. Gray Agrippina in Poems (1775) 134 'Tis time we go, the sun is high advanc'd.1800 S. T. Coleridge tr. Schiller Death Wallenstein ii. iv. ii. 137 It strikes eleven.1832 Tennyson Miller's Daughter x, in Poems (new ed.) 37 'Twas April then.1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 175 It was ten o'clock.1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. II. 191 It was Monday night.1944 N.Y. Times 25 Apr. 5/5 It was about noon..when he climbed out of his own ‘sanger’.1998 P. Gourevitch We wish to inform You v. 63 It was Sunday at the Cercle Sportif in Kigali.c. In statements about space, distance, or length of time.eOE King Ælfred tr. Boethius De Consol. Philos. (Otho) (2009) I. xxxi. 532 Ac hit is swiðe feor of uncrum wege, of þæm wege þe w[i]t getiohhod habbað on to farenne.OE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Tiber. B.i) anno 1066 Harold..þær his liðes abad, for þam þe hit wæs lang ær hit man gegaderian mihte.a1400 (▸a1325) Cursor Mundi (Trin. Cambr.) l. 20345 Say me how longe hit is to þon.1526 Bible (Tyndale) Mark ix. f. lvijv Howe longe is it a goo, sens this hath happened hym? And he sayde, of a chylde.1597 Shakespeare Richard II ii. iii. 1 How far is it my Lord to Barckly now?1597 Shakespeare Richard III v. v. 188 How farre into the morning is it.1611 Bible (King James) Mark ix. 21 Howe long is it agoe since this came vnto him?a1661 T. Fuller Worthies (1662) London 222 It was not long before he was caught by the Setters of the Secretary Walsingham, and brought to the Tower.1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones II. v. ii. 123 Nor was it, indeed, long before Jones was able to attend her to the Harpsichord.1773 O. Goldsmith She stoops to Conquer i. 13 We were told it was but forty miles..and we have come above threescore.1819 Scott Legend of Montrose iv, in Tales of my Landlord 3rd Ser. IV. 72 ‘It is a far cry to Lochow’..‘It is not for me to say how far it may be to Lochow’.1889 Harper's Mag. Aug. 328/1 It is only a few years since the Western critics scoffed at the very idea of such a thing as an original Russian art.1912 J. Judge & H. Williams (title of song) It's a long, long way to Tipperary.1948 ‘N. Shute’ No Highway iv. 92 It was years before she got an inkling what it was that differentiated her from all the stand-ins and walkers-on.2002 Times 11 Feb. ii. 28/3 Just how far is it, exactly, from Albert Square to 18th-century Seville?d. In statements about condition, welfare, affairs, circumstances, etc.OE Old Eng. Hexateuch: Gen. (Claud.) xxxvii. 14 Loca hwæðer hyt wel sy [L. si cuncta prospera sint] mid him..& cyð me hu hyt sy.OE tr. Gospel of Nicodemus (Cambr.) xx. §1. 209 Hyt wæs swyðe angrislic þa ða Satanas..cwæð to þære helle: gegearwa þe sylfe.c1225 (▸?c1200) Hali Meiðhad (Bodl.) (1940) 64 (MED) Sikerliche swa hit feareð.c1325 Sayings St. Bernard (Harl. 2253) in F. J. Furnivall Minor Poems Vernon MS (1901) ii. 514 Þus hit geþ bi-tuene hem tuo.c1390 (▸c1300) MS Vernon Homilies in Archiv f. das Studium der Neueren Sprachen (1877) 57 243 Hou schal hit fare of vs caytyues?1480 Table Prouffytable Lernynge (Caxton) (1964) 4 What do ye? How is it with you?1535 Bible (Coverdale) 2 Kings iv. 26 Axe her yf it go well with her.1611 Bible (King James) 2 Kings iv. 26 Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy husband? Is it well with the child?1681 H. Neville Plato Redivivus 15 Well, Sir, How is it? Have you rested well to Night?1751 W. Warburton in Wks. of Alexander Pope III. 109 Thus it fared with our two Worthies.1764 London Mag. Nov. 581 Oh, no, it is all over with me.1810 Scott Lady of Lake v. 211 Ill fared it then with Roderick Dhu, That on the field his targe he threw.1850 Tennyson In Memoriam iv. 4 O heart, how fares it with thee now.1881 F. Hall Lett. to Editor N.Y. Nation 21 As it has fared with all others..so, simply, it fares with me.1928 H. Crane Let. 27 Mar. (1965) 321 How goes it with your translations?1995 Daily Tel. 3 Nov. 7/2 Aye, it's cush here. Peterlee is sorted.2007 E. Morrison Swung (2008) i. 22 Wanting to ask her how it was going.e. In statements of physical or mental sensation.These often have a clause expressing the affecting cause, and then pass into A. 4.OE West Saxon Gospels: Matt. (Corpus Cambr.) xiv. 6 Ða on Herodes gebyrddæge tumbude þære Herodiadiscean dohtur beforan him & hit licode Herode [L. placuit Herodi].a1225 MS Lamb. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 55 Mid alle his mihte he wule us swenchen. Gif we leornið godes lare, þenne of-þuncheð hit him sare.c1325 in G. L. Brook Harley Lyrics (1968) 57 In myn herte hit doþ me god when y þenke on Iesu blod.c1475 (▸?c1425) Avowing of King Arthur (1984) l. 376 Hit schall þe noȝte greue.1673 J. Ray S. & E. Countrey Words in Coll. Eng. Words 64 It dares me, it pains or grieves me.1709 Swift Vindic. I. Bickerstaff 8 It grieved me..when I saw my Labours, which had cost so much Thought and Watching, bawl'd about by common Hawkers of Grubstreet.a1774 A. Tucker Light of Nature Pursued (1777) III. 154 Scratching where it itches.1844 E. B. Barrett Poems II. 161 How that true wife said to Pœtus..‘Sweet, it hurts not!’1916 E. O'Neill Bound East for Cardiff in Provincetown Plays 1st Ser. 16 It hurts like hell—here... I guess my old pump's busted. Ooohh!1965 Rotarian Sept. 29 It upsets me when someone takes over in my own kitchen.2000 N.Y. Times 10 Apr. c2/2 She is not a people person... She just doesn't do small talk. If you hang out with her, it feels awkward.4. Placed before the verb as anticipatory subject, with the logical subject of the sentence as complement.it is sometimes rhetorically retained when the logical subject is placed before the verb.a. With the logical subject a clause.This construction is sometimes called ‘extraposition of a clausal subject'.(a) With an infinitive clause.In Old English usually with the inflected (dative) infinitive preceded by to. It is not certain whether in quots. OE, lOE the infinitive clause should be interpreted as the logical subject or as modifying the predicative adjective.OE tr. Bede Eccl. Hist. (Cambr. Univ. Libr.) Pref. i. 2 Forþon hit is god godne to herianne & yfelne to leanne.lOE Laws: Gerefa (Corpus Cambr.) xviii. 455 Hit is earfoðe eall to gesecganne, þæt se beðencan sceal, ðe scire healt.a1225 (▸OE) Ælfric's Homily De Initio Creaturae (Vesp. A.xxii) in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 217 Hit is wel swete of him to specene.c1275 (▸?a1200) Laȝamon Brut (Calig.) (1978) l. 15527 Hit is on mine rede to don þat þu bede.a1300 in C. Brown Eng. Lyrics 13th Cent. (1932) 118 (MED) Moder milde..on þe hit is best to calle.1340 Ayenbite (1866) 53 (MED) Hit is grat wyt to loki mesure ine mete and ine drinke.c1430 (▸c1386) Chaucer Legend Good Women (Cambr. Gg.4.27) (1879) l. 634 In the se it happede hem to mete.c1475 (▸a1400) Awntyrs Arthure (Taylor) in J. Robson Three Early Eng. Metrical Romances (1842) 8 Hit were fulle tere for a tung, my tourmentes to telle.1548 N. Udall et al. tr. Erasmus Paraphr. Newe Test. I. Matt. 58 a To lothe and dyspyse them, it is no holynes, but pryde.a1616 Shakespeare Othello (1622) ii. iii. 196 Vnlesse..to defend our selues it be a sinne.a1616 Shakespeare Cymbeline (1623) iii. iii. 79 How hard it is to hide the sparkes of Nature.1635 J. Hayward tr. G. F. Biondi Donzella Desterrada 98 Depends it on mee..to know either your being..or your stay here?1667 Milton Paradise Lost viii. 641 To stand or fall Free in thine own Arbitrement it lies.a1716 O. Blackall Wks. (1723) I. iii. 25 It has been commonly their Fate to fare hardlier.1744 E. Young Complaint: Night the Sixth 12 Is it in Time to hide Eternity?1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 49 It was necessary to make a choice.1875 Encycl. Brit. III. 290/1 It has been found possible to render voting perfectly secret and to provide for a scrutiny.1923 N.Y. Times 6 Sept. 4 (advt.) It is important to get Wheatsworth Crackers with your bowl of milk or ‘half and half’.1997 Independent 7 June (Long Weekend section) 3/5 It's hard to reconcile the control-freak in his nature with the hyper-adrenalinated kid in front of the camera.(b) With a declarative noun clause (with or without that). Now esp. frequent with the passive voice, as it is said, etc.eOE King Ælfred tr. Gregory Pastoral Care (Hatton) (1871) xlvi. 355 Hit tocymð ðæt hie hit sprecan sculon.OE Wulfstan Luke on Last Days (Hatton 113) 125 Hit is gecweden þæt sunne aðystrað.c1275 (▸?a1216) Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) (1935) 1339 Soþ hit is, of luue ich singe.c1300 Childhood Jesus (Laud) l. 99 in C. Horstmann Altengl. Legenden (1875) 1st Ser. 6 It is þe beste Vnder þis treo þat ich me reste.c1300 St. Dunstan (Harl.) l. 117 in F. J. Furnivall Early Eng. Poems & Lives Saints (1862) 37 Hit biful þat þe bischop of wircetre was ded.▸ a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 199 Hyt is redde in storyes that Ytaly somme tyme..was callede the grete londe off Grece.a1425 (▸?a1300) Kyng Alisaunder (Linc. Inn) (1952) l. 3692 Schame hit is we weore so feynt.c1475 MS Trin. Dublin 245 in J. H. Todd Apol. Lollard Doctr. (1842) p. xvi Hit is writen in the first book of holy writ, that ther weren thre patriarkes in the peple of God.c1500 in F. J. Furnivall Gild of St. Mary, Lichfield (1920) 14 It is ordenyd that..no tenaind at wyll shall make a tenand.1594 R. Carew tr. J. Huarte Exam. Mens Wits xiii. 204 It is necessarie that he hold a difference of imagination, forecastfull, warie.1611 Bible (King James) 1 Kings xviii. 1 It came to passe after many daies, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah.1611 Bible (King James) 1 Kings xviii. 4 It was so, when Iezebel cut off the Prophets of the Lord, that Obadiah tooke an hundred Prophets and hid them.1650 A. Weldon Court & Char. King James , 122 Its verily beleeved..it was intended the Law should run in its proper channell.1711 T. Hearne Remarks & Coll. (1889) III. 163 'Tis pretended that this Smith must have went away that Morning.1749 H. Fielding Tom Jones II. vi. iii. 247 It may be objected, that very wise Men have been notoriously avaricious.1805 Scott Lay of Last Minstrel ii. xxxii. 57 Use lessens marvel, it is said.1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Miner's Right II. xv. 64 It seems they have been mopping up some rich surfacing.1946 Nature 21 Dec. 917/1 It might be feared that his remarks will leave the cytochemist with a gloomy feeling.2005 Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 30 Aug. 15/1 It is expected 500 will attend.(c) With an interrogative clause.eOE tr. Orosius Hist. (BL Add.) (1980) ii. v. 46 Ealles his heres wæs swelc ungemet þæt mon eaðe cweþan mehte ðæt hit wundor wære, hwær hie landes hæfden þæt hie mehten an gewician.▸ a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1869) II. 63 Hit is vncerteyn who bulde first þis citee.▸ a1393 Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) iv. l. 1480 A gret mervaile it is forthi, How that a Maiden wolde lette, That sche hir time ne besette To haste unto that ilke feste, Wherof the love is al honeste.1485 Caxton in Malory's Morte Darthur Pref. sig. iij Wherfor it is a meruayl why he is nomore renomed in his owne contreye.1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. i. f. 15 For it is merueilous, how great establishment groweth hereof.1621 T. Granger Familiar Expos. Eccles. (vii. 4) 161 It is vncertaine, what coast it [sc. the needle of a compass] most affecteth, or rather what his naturall position is, being violently agitated.1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. i. 28 It is incredible, how speedily and generally the Infection spread by his preaching.1707 J. Freind Acct. Earl of Peterborow's Conduct in Spain 211 It is no Matter what becomes of the Town.1711 in 10th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1885) App. v. 186 It is inexpressible, how well he prepared for his long departure, his desired exit.1824 S. E. Ferrier Inheritance lxxiii It was inconceivable, too, what he made of himself all day.1866 Rural Amer. (Utica, N.Y.) 15 Dec. 369/2 It is of no consequence whether you ever got up a club for a paper or not.1953 P. Larkin Let. 22 July in Sel. Lett. (1992) 205 It doesn't matter what you write as long as you feel strongly enough.1978 J. Updike Coup (1979) vi. 247 It's a miracle, what you can squeeze out of a rock.2003 Guardian 28 Oct. ii. 2/3 It doesn't matter where your sympathies lie.(d) With a gerund clause.1644 S. Kem Messengers Prep. 22 It's good stepping into the poole upon the motion of the waters.1659 M. Playford tr. Hist. Eng. & Sc. Presbytery xxii. 68 It is ill going Procession when the Devil carries the Crosse.1725 R. Wodrow Corr. (1843) III. 232 Indeed, it's hard mixing in with self-willed and peremptory people.1800 T. Dibdin Jew & Doctor ii. ii. 27 It's no use talking to the savage.1839 Dickens Nicholas Nickleby iv. 27 It's expensive keeping boys at home.1920 E. O'Neill Beyond Horizon ii. i. 122 If you think it's fun sweltering in this oven of a kitchen to keep things warm for you, you're mistaken.1993 J. Green It: Sex since Sixties 33 It's difficult being a woman.2003 A. Garner Thursbitch (2004) 44 It's no use getting mithered.b. In a periphrastic introductory clause with to be (cf. sense A. 2) having as its highlighted complement an adverbial phrase, noun phrase, etc., followed by a relative clause equivalent to a main clause of which the phrase thus highlighted would be the adverbial, subject, object, etc.In Irish English used colloquially in a wider range of contexts than in other varieties of English, frequently with zero relative pronoun.This construction is often called a ‘cleft sentence’.(a) With adverbial as complement.In Old English in comparable constructions hit is usually omitted. However, hit is sometimes found in constructions with adverbial indicating time, where to be originally has the sense ‘to happen’ or ‘to be the case’ (cf. be v. 2, 3); occasionally þæt is found rather than hit.eOE Metres of Boethius (transcript of damaged MS) (2009) i. 1 Hit wæs geara iu ðætte Gotan eastan of Sciððia sceldas læddon.OE Wulfstan Last Days (Hatton) 137 Hit wæs oft ær þæt Godes halgan fela wundra þurh Godes mihta openlice worhtan.c1275 (▸?a1216) Owl & Nightingale (Calig.) (1935) 1165 Heruore hit is þat me þeshuneþ.?a1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (N.Y. Acad. Med.) f. 74v If a nerue or a corde be kut in þe necke, it is seldom þat..þe necke haue fre mouyng.c1425 (▸c1300) Chron. Robert of Gloucester (Harl.) 9 In þe tyme bi twene Abraham & Moyses it was þat men come to Engolond.a1500 (▸a1400) Sir Amadace (Adv.) (1810) l. 284 Hyt is in the deyd name that Y speyke.a1616 Shakespeare Henry VI, Pt. 2 (1623) iv. ii. 128 It is to you good people, that I speake.1776 Gibbon Decline & Fall x It was not till the eighteenth year of his reign, that Diocletian could be persuaded by Galerius to begin a general persecution.1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 28 It was by him that money was coined.1893 Jrnl. Hellenic Stud. 13 254 We are told by Pliny..that it was at Corinth that gold was first mixed with the bronze.1938 E. Waugh Scoop ii. v. 233 I read the newspapers with lively interest. It is seldom that they are absolutely, point blank wrong.1961 J. Thurber Let. 13 Apr. (2002) 748 It was some fifteen years ago that the English medical journal, The Lancet, first began using the expression ‘Walter Mitty’ syndrome.2007 Racing Rev. 65/3 It is to Belgium that they are looking for help in moving further afield.(b) With the noun phrase which would be the subject of the clause as complement.[OE West Saxon Gospels: Mark (Corpus Cambr.) xiv. 44 Swa hwylcne swa ic cysse he hit is [L. quemcumque osculatus fuero ipse est].]c1330 (▸?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) l. 1053 A fende it was þat me biȝat.▸ c1384 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(2)) (1850) John vi. 64 It is the spirit that quykeneth, the fleysch profiteth nothing.c1425 Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) ii. l. 8476 It was he, þat..Of worþines was þe lode-sterre.1581 A. Hall tr. Homer 10 Bks. Iliades iii. 52 It is Aiax the strong, Who is best hope, defence and wall, that to the Greeks belong.1600 Shakespeare Merchant of Venice i. ii. 14 It is a good diuine that followes his owne instructions.1600 Shakespeare Merchant of Venice ii. ii. 72 It is a wise Father that knowes his owne childe.1664 J. Evelyn tr. R. Fréart Parallel Antient Archit. ii. i. 88 It was Architecture her self which was here the Historiograph of this new kind of History.1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 225. ¶5 If we look into particular Communities and Divisions of Men..it is the discreet Man..who guides the Conversation.1768 L. Sterne Sentimental Journey II. 124 ‘'Tis an ill wind,’ said a boatman..‘which blows no body any good.’1812 J. Watt Let. 13 Apr. in J. P. Muirhead Origin & Progress Mech. Inventions J. Watt (1843) II. 338 It is a Mr. Fulton who has constructed the steam-boats in America.1830 W. Carleton Traits & Stories Irish Peasantry II. 133 And maybe..'tis we that didn't lick them well in the last fair.1883 Harper's Mag. June 35/1 It is I who am a drag on you. It is I who am getting you into danger.1922 Fortn. Rev. 1 Mar. 516 It is a bad workman who complains of his tools.2007 A. McCall Smith Good Husband Zebra Drive x. 113 It's not everybody who is as good to their staff as you are.OED:way, n.1 and int.117. a. A manner or style in which something is done or happens; a method of proceeding in any activity or operation.†(a) In Old English in the genitive plural as complement of an indefinite pronoun, as gehwelce wega: in every manner or respect, anyway, anyhow, on wega gehwelcum (or gehwam): in all circumstances, by all means, at all times, always (cf. alway adv.). Obsolete.eOE Épinal Gloss. (1974) 44 Quacumque modo, gihuuuelci uuaega [eOE Erfurt Gloss. gihuelci uuegi, eOE Corpus Gloss. gehwelci wega].OE Maxims I 144 Wel mon sceal wine healdan on wega gehwylcum.OE Andreas (1932) 65 A ic symles wæs on wega gehwam willan þines georn on mode.(c) In other constructions.1563 T. Gale Certaine Wks. Chirurg. iv. To Rdr. sig. Aaaiiii The methode and way of composition of suche medicines.1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry ii. f. 72 But are there more wayes then one of plantyng and setting?a1616 Shakespeare Measure for Measure (1623) iii. i. 370 They say this Angelo was not made by Man and Woman, after this downe-right way of Creation.1651 R. Baxter Plain Script. Proof Infants Church-membership & Baptism 23 There is more ways of teaching then by preaching in a Pulpit.1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. 34 I have said enough of the Turks way of Eating, Drinking and Sleeping.1711 J. Addison Spectator No. 124. ¶4 I may guess at their Characters by their Way of Writing.1747 H. Glasse Art of Cookery i. 4 There are several Ways of making Sauce for a Pig.1791 J. Boswell Life Johnson anno 1778 II. 241 [Johnson:] They should set him in the pillory, that he may be punished in a way that would disgrace him.1815 Scott Guy Mannering I. xii. 193 O aye, sir, there's nae doubt of that, though there are mony idle clashes about the way and manner.1878 T. Hardy Return of Native I. ii. ii. 248 Yet why, aunt, does everybody keep on making me think that I do, by the way they behave towards me?1897 J. W. Clark Observ. Priory Barnwell Introd. 9 A few words on the way in which I was led to undertake the work.1919 Outing June 183/1 There are several ways of drying a shell.1952 M. R. Rinehart Swimming Pool (1953) xx. 170 It's no way to talk about a sister, but I've had about all I can take.1972 L. Hudson Cult of Fact 76 To pursue knowledge in a way that is inimical to the proper growth of human self-awareness.2007 Baltimore Sun 20 May c2/6 It's up to credit agencies initially to decide which way to contact them to temporarily lift a freeze.19. a. A method, means, or course of action by which a particular task can be accomplished or result brought about. Frequently with of and gerund, or to followed by infinitive or noun.Quot. 1708 could be interpreted with the specific meaning ‘mode of transport’.a1225 (▸?OE) MS Lamb. in R. Morris Old Eng. Homilies (1868) 1st Ser. 49 Þet we maȝen mid ure muðe bringen us ut of þisse putte..and þet þurh þreo herde weies þe þus beoð ihaten: Cordis contricione, Oris confessione, Operis satisfactione.▸ a1393 Gower Confessio Amantis (Fairf.) iv. l. 2447 (MED) Saturnus..fond the weie..to coigne the moneie Of sondri metall.c1425 Lydgate Troyyes Bk. (Augustus A.iv) i. l. 477 (MED) To enhaunce þin honour to þe heuene..I haue a weye espied.a1450 (▸?1404) in J. Kail 26 Polit. Poems (1904) 15 (MED) By al way make hym þi frende.c1475 tr. C. de Pisan Livre du Corps de Policie (Cambr.) (1977) 157 (MED) Inquyre if he be acustomed to vse in his werkynges cautelous and couert weyes.1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VII f. li For after yt tyme there were an hundred wayes practised and inuented how at one time or another, to deliuer or conuey them out of pryson.1549 R. Crowley Voyce Laste Trumpet sig. Bvi Whye should not I..Haue benifices two or thre? Sence thou hast taught me the way how I may kepe them and blamlesse be?a1616 Shakespeare Antony & Cleopatra (1623) i. iii. 10 Thou teachest like a foole: the way to lose him.1624 J. Donne Deuotions x. 229 Those are the greatest mischifs, which are least discerned; the most insensible in their wayes come to bee the most sensible in their ends.1668 R. Steele Husbandmans Calling (1672) v. 96 The way to have full barns, is to have free hands.1708 in W. Mure Select. Family Papers Caldwell (1854) I. 214 I have inquired what way my goods may safeliest be sent, and am told that by Holstein ships.1720 D. Defoe Life Capt. Singleton 26 They took ways..to satisfy us.1753 S. Richardson Hist. Sir Charles Grandison I. ii. 5 And tho' he finds a way, by his sister..to let Miss Byron know his passion.1844 Ld. Brougham Albert Lunel II. vi. 176 Against England he is implacable, and..the only way to ruffle his temper is to praise her.1892 Speaker 3 Sept. 292/2 Mr. Huxley..can see but one way of arriving at truth; which he calls experience.1937 Amer. Home Apr. 125/2 The only sure way is to exclude the spores from the bread itself, and that means excluding the air.1996 F. Popcorn & L. Marigold Clicking ii. 48 You can..figure out a way to do things better, faster, friendlier, more satisfying to the consumer.2012 Church Times 21 Dec. 15/4 Myth was a pre-religious way of making sense of the world.