On 22/10/06, TREVOR BURRIDGE <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> "a line has to be drawn in the sand" was use by Sue regarding the current
> BW
> DEFRA thingy
>
> This nice little add on to denote a position of no return should now be
> consigned to the dustbin
You're being too literal, Trevor. Language isn't like that. These phrases
come with baggage, much of it historical, but part of the richness of
our tongue Turns of phrase in English are often nonsense if examined for
what they actually say rather than what it is commonly understood they mean.
FWIW - a result of 5mins of googling - "William Safire, in his book 'Love
With Norma Loquendi" (a collection of his Sunday New York Times Magazine
columns, published by Random House in 1994), provides two possible origins
for "drawing a line in the sand."
The more recent possible origin for the phrase is an incident said to have
taken place during the siege of the Alamo in 1836, when William Barret
Travis drew a line in the sand with his sword and urged those willing to
stay and defend the fort to step across it. Unfortunately, this heroic story
seems to have been invented by a 19th century promoter long after the fall
of the Alamo. But the myth itself probably greatly popularized the phrase,
so it does count as an origin of sorts even if the incident itself was
apocryphal.
Another possible origin dates back to the time of the Roman Empire. It seems
that one of the Macedonian kings, a bit short of cash, decided to invade
Egypt, then a Roman protectorate. His army was met at the border by a lone
Roman senator named Popillius Laenas, who ordered the king to withdraw. The
king began to stall for time, so Popillius Laenas drew a circle in the sand
around the king and demanded that the king agree to withdraw his army before
he stepped out of the circle. The king, apparently impressed by the
senator's nerve (or, more likely, by the Roman Empire in general), withdrew.
Incidentally, not only is this account verified by contemporary historians,
but it also may be the only known instance of a line drawn in the sand
actually stopping someone."
Agree with you about its use in management-speak, Though the blame for that
is probably Dubya who used it during Gulf War 1.
Steve
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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