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Re: [OM] Common language, was Cleaning Old Price Tag

Subject: Re: [OM] Common language, was Cleaning Old Price Tag
From: "RickM" <zuiko@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 19:44:44 -0700
You can blame "by and large" on the brits (along with many other things for
that matter... we've always found them to be quite useful in that way, thank
you very much... ;)   it's been around forever, though maybe not in the
states... perhaps someone in management ran into the Horatio Hornblower
books... ;)

<paste from: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mbylarge.html >
The phrase "by and large" today means "generally speaking," "mostly" or "on
the whole." The origin is nautical, and had a very precise meaning. It was
an order to the man at the helm of a sailing ship, meaning to sail the ship
slightly off the wind. A similar command was "full and by" which meant to
"sail as close to the wind as it can go."

The risk of sailing too close to the wind was the danger of being "taken
aback" (when the sails press against the mast and progress halts.)

Thus, when a person doesn't want to "sail" directly into a statement, "by
and large" is a hedge, a phrase of circumspection, a way of saying that the
statement is an imprecise generality.
</paste>

RickM

> My favorite is the term "by and large" as I have no idea what it means or
> where the hell it came from. Does anyone know? /jim


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