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for good

azz

Banned
Persian
I know 'for good' can mean forever. Could it also mean 'for a good cause', 'for the benefit of people'?

a. Scientists are supposed to make inventions for good.
b. Scientists are supposed to invent things for good.
c. You have to work for good.

Here 'for good' is the opposite of 'for evil'.

Do the sentences work?

Many thanks.
As you say, for good is a set phrase meaning permanently. There’s nothing wrong in principle with using it to mean instead "in order to do good" – but no, your attempts to do that don’t work, in my opinion. To make it idiomatic, you’d need to be more specific, I think, or use it in the idiom "for good or ill".
  • Thank you!
Reactions: azz
I would find "a stammer for good" puzzling.
So the answer to your question is "No", I'm afraid.
I'm responding to the original question about whether 'for good' can mean 'for someone's benefit', and the responses suggested that the answer was no. This brought to mind a particular translation of a sentence:

For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD . "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29.11, New Living Translation)
This is in contrast to other translations, such as this.
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (New International Version)

I think the first translation sounds effective to me, so 'for good' can mean 'for someone's benefit', though it is used in a contrastive context.

I agree with Loob and lingobingo about the stammer sentence.
Yes, "for good" can mean "for the betterment of society, with a good or noble purpose in mind" and so on.

We have the formulaic phrase "for good or for ill".

Do a Google Books search for "a force for good" and you will see many examples of that usage.

Your example sentences aren't using the phrase idiomatically, but the phrase does exist.
Can one say: "After being scared by a dog the boy got a stammer for good"?

The reason why it sounds unnatural is that "for good" is usually used for deliberate or final actions.

He left the country for good.
We broke up for good.
I quit smoking for good.

Getting a stammer (or, more idiomatically, developing a stammer) is not something a person does voluntarily, so we can't use "for good" there.

I would probably say "The boy started stammering after being scared by a dog." We can't know whether the boy will stammer for the rest of his life or be cured at some point, so I wouldn't refer to the condition as being permanent.
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