[stylist] useful resource

Thu Jun 17 22:14:33 UTC 2010

apologies for the double post, my e-mail program had a little glitch.
jc

At 05:12 PM 6/17/2010, you wrote:
>I've subscribed to the "a phrase a week" newsletter for some time 
>now.  don't think have shared it here.  below you'll see yesterday's.
>jc
>From: A Phrase A Week <apaw at phrasefinder.co.uk>
>
>
>In the nick of time
>
>Meaning
>
>Just in time; at the precise moment.
>
>Origin
>
>The English language gives us the opportunity to be 'in' many things 
>- <http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/in-the-doldrums.html>the 
>doldrums, <http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/in-the-offing.html>the 
>offing, <http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/in-the-pink.html>the 
>pink; we can even be 
><http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/down-in-the-dumps.html>down in 
>the dumps. With all of these expressions it is pretty easy to see 
>what they refer to, but what or where is the 'nick of time'? It may 
>not be immediately obvious what the nick of time is, but we do know 
>what it means to be in it, i.e. arriving at the last propitious 
>moment. Prior to the 16th century there was another expression used 
>to convey that meaning - 'pudding time'. This relates to the fact 
>that pudding was the dish served first at mediaeval mealtimes. To 
>arrive at pudding time was to arrive at the start of the meal, just 
>in time to eat. Pudding was then a savoury dish - a form of sausage 
>or haggis (see also 
><http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/proof-of-the-pudding.html>the 
>proof is in the pudding). Pudding time is first referred to in print 
>in John Heywood's invaluable glossary A dialogue conteinyng the 
>nomber in effect of all the prouerbes in the Englishe tongue, 1546:
>
>This geare comth euen in puddyng time ryghtly.
>
>In the nick of
>time
>That seems a perfectly serviceable idiom, so why did the Tudors 
>change it to 'the nick of time'? The motivation appears to be the 
>desire to express a finer degree of timing than the vague 'around 
>the beginning of the meal'. The nick that was being referred to was 
>a notch or small cut and was synonymous with precision. Such notches 
>were used on 'tally' sticks to measure or keep score.
>
>Note: the expressions 'keeping score' and 'keeping tally' derive 
>from this and so do 'stocks' and 'shares', which refer to the 
>splitting of such sticks (stocks) along their length and sharing the 
>two matching halves as a record of a deal.
>
>If someone is now said to be 'in the nick' the English would expect 
>him to be found in prison, the Scots would picture him in the valley 
>between two hills and Australians would imagine him to be naked. To 
>Shakespeare and his contemporaries if someone were 'in (or at, or 
>upon) the (very) nick' they were in the precise place at the precise 
>time. Watches and the strings of musical instruments were adjusted 
>to precise pre-marked nicks to keep them in proper order. Ben Jonson 
>makes a reference to that in the play Pans Anniversary, circa 1637:
>
>For to these, there is annexed a clock-keeper, a grave person, as 
>Time himself, who is to see that they all keep time to a nick.
>
>Arthur Golding gave what is likely to be the first example of the 
>use of 'nick' in this context in his translation of Ovid's Metamorphosis, 1565:
>
>Another thing cleane overthwart there commeth in the nicke:
>The Ladie Semell great with childe by Jove as then was quicke.
>
>The 'time' in 'the nick of time' is rather superfluous, as nick 
>itself refers to time. The first example of the use of the phrase as 
>we now know it comes in Arthur Day's Festivals, 1615:
>
>Even in this nicke of time, this very, very instant.
>
>
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