Line:
My job is on the line is perhaps related to the above but the
expression has an implication of job insecurity. As a result the line
may be the dole queue and this fits in with the mainly American use of
the phrase since "queue" is seldom used in American English. An
alternative origin may be the Assembly Line. This type of automation
deprived factory workers of any sort of control over their speed of
work - they had to keep up with the line. By extension, if someone felt
that they had lost control of their own destiny or job security, then a
comparison with the Assembly Line is understandable.
If
you are asked to toe the line then you are expected to conform to the
rules of the situation. In one suggested origin the Line actually
exists and is still found in the House of Commons. It was put there to
mark the sword distance between Government and Opposition front
benches. Members were told to toe the line if, in the eyes of the
Speaker, they became too excited.
A less romantic possible basis is found in athletics where the runners
in a race line up with their toes on the line.
The US Navy has a completely different origin. From their web site
comes:
"The space between each pair of deck planks in a wooden ship was filled
with a packing material called "oakum" and then sealed with a mixture
of pitch and tar. The result, from afar, was a series of parallel lines
a half-foot or so apart, running the length of the deck.
Once a week, as a rule, usually on Sunday, a warship's crew was ordered
to fall in at quarters -- that is, each group of men into which the
crew was divided would line up in formation in a given area of the
deck. To insure a neat alignment of each row, the Sailors were directed
to stand with their toes just touching a particular seam.
Another use for these seams was punitive. The youngsters in a ship, be
they ship's boys or student officers, might be required to stand with
their toes just touching a designated seam for a length of time as
punishment for some minor infraction of discipline, such as talking or
fidgeting at the wrong time. A tough captain might require the
miscreant to stand there, not talking to anyone, in fair weather or
foul, for hours at a time. Hopefully, he would learn it was easier and
more pleasant to conduct himself in the required manner rather than
suffer the punishment.
From these two uses of deck seams comes our cautionary word to
obstreperous youngsters to "toe the line.""
What
sort of line are you in is said as an enquiry about the nature of
someone's job, but, why line? The word seems very inappropriate in this
sense, but we all recognise its meaning. There is even a panel game
called "What's my Line?". I can find no good reference to the
background, especially when one thinks that the saying is sometimes in
the form of "what's your line of country?". However there seem to be at
least two possibilities that personally occur to me, but without any
documentary evidence to back them up. One puts the basis in the theatre
where actors had their own lines to read; by extension this related to
occupations. More possible is the theory that the line was the specific
one on which the business details were entered on Victorian business
cards; one can imagine the printer saying to a customer "what's your
business line?"
Lines: To read between the lines is to be able to discern a hidden or
secret meaning; to draw conclusions which are not at first apparent.
The background here is that of cryptography where one method of secret
writing was to position the message in such a way that it was only
intelligible when alternate lines were read.
To
have hard lines is to have bad luck; hardship. In Psalm 16.6: 'The
lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly
heritage', apparently referring to lines marking out the boundaries of
the speaker's land and home. Hence, 'lines' came to mean one's position
in life; thus 'hard lines' were bad fortune.
Loaf: If you are asked to use your loaf you are expected to show a
little common sense; to show some intelligence. This is merely rhyming
slang; loaf=loaf of bread=head.
Lock: Lock, stock and barrel is an old expression indicating totality,
such as is seen in "he sold up, lock, stock and barrel" meaning
everything. These locks and stocks are those of a gun and they came to
be used in "totality" sense when guns themselves came to be
manufactured in interchangeable pieces. This first occurred in the USA
where a Senator in Massachusetts (I believe) persuaded his Senate that
it was a good idea to break down the manufacture in this way. The
pieces were easier to transport and, since they were interchangeable,
then "new" guns could be made up from bits from otherwise damaged
weapons. To make up a gun you did, however need a lock, stock and
barrel.
Loggerheads: If people are at loggerheads then they are quarrelling or
arguing with each other. The phrase is several centuries old and can be
found in Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew". Logger was the name given
to the heavy wooden block fastened to the legs of grazing horses to
prevent them straying. Sometimes the loggers became entangled, with
resultant strife; horses being basically impracticable they were
likened to a block head if they became entangled and this is the
explanation of the saying according to some sources.
Other sources suggests that the origin is nautical. Loggerheads were
long handled devices with a spherical cup at one end. These cups were
filled with hot tar or pitch which was thrown at enemy sailors. They,
of course, responded and both sides were truly at loggerheads.
There is yet another nautical suggestion, this time involving whale
boats. In these boats the loggerhead was a channel through which ran
the harpoon rope. The channel became very hot when the rope was running
out; it had to be cooled with water. The heat generated was likened to
that found when people argue.
I suspect the nautical origins are correct and I suspect also that the
whale boat loggerhead derived its name from the hot pitch background.
Long: So long is an informal way of saying Goodbye. I can find no
reference to an origin, but I think that I read once that the
expression is based on the Jewish equivalent shalom, which sounds like
so long.
Lurch: To be left in the lurch is to be left in a disadvantageous
position. The expression comes from an old French dicing game called
"Lourche". Any player who incurred a Lourche in the game was left
helplessly behind. In the game of cribbage where, if your opponent has
run out his score of 51 holes before you turn the corner or have pegged
out your 31st hole, you are also left in the lurch. Additionally the
winner, having put his peg in the final hole has caused the game to
die; it is pegged out.
