Learn English – Meaning of “has come to”

phrase-meaning

In text, all-caps has come to be understood as 'shouting'.

What's the meaning of has come to?

I'm pretty sure it means can in this contexts. If so, is there any difference between them?

Best Answer

Come [to VERB] is closely related to become: both designate gradual arrival at an enduring state. Become is used with nominal or adjectival complements, come is used with infinitival complements—usually stative verbs, or telic verbs which can be 'recategorized' as stative.

I used to dislike him, but I have become fond of him.
I used to dislike him, but I have come to love him.

All-caps was common in the days of teletypes and early computers; for instance, I can remember a time when speeches were always typed in caps because that's the only sort of characters that teleprompters could display. Over time, however, as computers became capable of more complex display, all-caps was deprecated: it became a sign of rudeness—it came to be understood as 'shouting'.

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