meaning - What is the structure in "as best you can"?


I instinctively translate it "as best as you can", however this makes no sense. What is the real structure behind this phrase?


I'll include an Ngram to illustrate the historical presence of this phrase:


http://ngrams.googlelabs.com/ngrams/chart?content=as+best+you+can%2Cas+well+as+you+can&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=0&smoothing=3


Whatever the structure is, I'm guessing that it has something to do with 19th century grammar.



Answer



"As best you can" is an idiom with archaic syntax. A more modern version would be "as you can best", though that is still not particularly normal today.


"As well as you can" is a different construction.


As various people have said "as best as you can" is a blend of the two constructions (with the opacity of "as best you can" contributing to the confusion).


[Made an answer on drmj65's request.]


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