We usen't to say we didn't use to

Dan Piepenbring writes in the Paris Review about an obsolete contraction, usen’t:

Fun fact: the contracted form of used not to is usen’t to, which has been, despite its pleasant lilt, almost wholly displaced by didn’t use to.

He goes on to warn us against trying to revive usen’t to for two reasons:

1. You'd end up "sounding pretentious" (probably a minor concern in this group), and


2. "you’d run the risk of becoming very miserable."

He warns that usen’t to has almost always been used in literature in a sad or regretful context. Examples are given in his article.

I instinctively hate didn't use to. 'For a long time I used to go to bed early' must be correct but how do you say the opposite? '.. I used not to go...' seems fine as does '...I never used to go ...' but not '... I did not used to go to...'

Fowler (1968 ed.) asserts that as an intransitive verb, meaning to be wont to, use is now confined to the past tense, despite older use in the present tense. "The proper negative form is therefore he used not to (or, colloquially, he usen't to); but he didn't use to should be regarded rather as an archaism than a vulgarism, like He didn't ought to."

Algernon: You can hardly have forgotten that some one very closely connected with you was very nearly carried off this week in Paris by a severe chill.

Jack: Yes, but you said yourself that a severe chill was not hereditary.

Algernon: It usen’t to be, I know—but I daresay it is now. Science is always making wonderful improvements in things.

It never used to be that important to be earnest.

Unless you are Earnest