to/for all intents and purposes

I love my brother so I really hate to bitch-slap him on the internet. He found what he believed a "flaw" in my last entry where I was making fun of dorks who say "intensive purposes" as opposed to "intents and purposes." He corrected me, pointing out that I had the expression wrong by using to instead of for. That would have made me look pretty silly.

Except...

I have seen it both ways in literature and have heard it used both ways by people who I can only imagine knew what they were talking about. I used to because I had just read it as such (in Arthur Miller no less), and I was reminded of jerks who butcher that cliche and that I should put it in my blog. To support my claim I found some page on the internet which says:

This cliche (meaning "practically") is a shortening of the legal phrase "to all intents, constructions, and purposes" (found in an act adopted under Henry VIII in 1547). The corruption "for all intensive purposes" is frequently reported.

http://alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxtoalli.html

Some other web site has this to say:

The correct phrase is "to all intents and purposes:" Also [bastardized as:] for all intents and purposes; [has the same meaning as:] for all practical purposes. Definition: In every practical sense, virtually. For example, For all intents and purposes the case is closed, or For all practical purposes the Vice-President is the chief executive while the President is in the hospital. The first phrase, dating from the 1500s, originated in English law, where it was to all intents, constructions, and purposes.

http://www.faqfarm.com/Q/Is_the_saying_'all_intents_and_purposes'_or_'all_intense_purposes'

Bottom line - people who use the term "intensive purposes" probably don't read and are trying to parrot things they have heard in an attempt to sound smarter than they really are.

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/intensive.html

I did a search using Google Print, which located the phrase in 17,200 instances in literature so there are certainly plenty of places to read it... I only wonder how many of those are books about cliches... I myself must have read it at least 12 times in Penthouse Forums... err... I mean great literature that is old, and REAL and gets read in schools and bathrooms.

On a related note, people who want to type stuff to appear smarter than they really are have blogs.

To be fair to my brother he didn't really say I was wrong, only that I used a less common form of the expression. But since its been nearly 85 entries since I've overeacted to anything via my blog, I figured it was about time. To my Bro I'd just like to say: for all intensive purposes, I get the idea.