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I've found a lot of versions, like:

  • baffled why
  • baffled about why
  • baffled at why
  • baffled by why
  • baffled as to why
  • baffled on why
  • baffled over why

Is there a correct form? Is any of the above wrong?

RegDwigнt
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htorque
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  • See: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/54901/should-we-worry-about-what-precedes-a-preposition – Kris May 03 '12 at 19:59

1 Answers1

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All OP's alternatives are acceptable except on (over isn't good, but it's not totally invalid to me).

My vote for the "best" would be "baffled as to why", which Google Books says has 2350 hits for C21, against 1180 for plain baffled why. The others are ..about;301 ..at;143 ..by;232 ..on;8 ..over;31

Per comments below, baffled by accounts for a good proportion of all usages for baffle, but it seems we tend to avoid the alliteration of baffled by why.

I myself am baffled by the etymology of baffle, which seems to have originally meant disgrace, thence through mock to the modern sense of to bewilder, perplex. I also think we tend to use the "passive" past participle more today - we say "He's baffled by it", rather than "It baffles him".

FumbleFingers
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  • ngrams is weird. it also says that none of these appeared before 1930, and that just 'baffled' has occurred so much that in comparison all the others have negligeable frequency. looking at examples of just 'baffled' and the others doesn't give me clue. – Mitch May 03 '12 at 19:29
  • @Mitch Too baffled to go on to say what the writer was baffled . – Kris May 03 '12 at 19:54
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    What does "baffled" mean? – MT_Head May 03 '12 at 20:34
  • @Mitch: I'm baffled myself. Although I've always quite liked "baffled as to* why", I'm surprised Google Books shows it being so much more popular (I kinda thought it was something of a personal preference). The weird thing is that "baffled by"* is much more common than "baffled as to" - but presumably we don't like the awkward alliteration of "baffled by why". – FumbleFingers May 03 '12 at 20:36
  • @MT_Head: From OED - confounded, discomfited, checked or foiled. I would add flummoxed, perplexed, bewildered. – FumbleFingers May 03 '12 at 20:39
  • @FumbleFingers - The link is to a clip of one of my favorite scenes from the movie Highlander; the cops are in the middle of a difficult case and go to the hot dog stand in front of the precinct. The hot dog vendor, to provoke them, makes a show of reading a news article about the case and pretending not to understand some of the more insulting words. "What does 'incompetent' mean?", he asks. "What does 'baffled' mean?" As I said, it's one of my favorite scenes, and I quote it often... and this question seemed like a perfect venue for it. – MT_Head May 03 '12 at 21:11
  • @MT_Head: I will try to keep up in future - dint notice your entire comment was highlighted. This question/answer is probably the only chance you'll ever get to post that as an apposite link, and I missed it! – FumbleFingers May 03 '12 at 21:21
  • @FumbleFingers - Ah, how I suffer for my art. – MT_Head May 03 '12 at 23:15
  • @SilentDownvoter: Now I'm really baffled! I can't say this is the best answer I've ever given (or indeed the most interesting question I've ever responded to), but I can't for the life of me see anything sufficiently contentious to merit a downvote. Particularly, in the absence of any alternative answers at all, let alone an answer (or even comment) exposing serious inadequacies in this one. So why the downvote? – FumbleFingers May 04 '12 at 14:35