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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I came across the phrase "vim and vigor" the other day and, struck by its repetitive nature, was reminded of when "kit and caboodle" came up here a while back. have we covered (nearly) equivalent pairings?
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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A professor with whom I studied long, long ago told me that, when there appears to be a redundancy in such a pairing, it is often because one Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) word has been coupled with one Norman (Latin) word. He pointed to a dozen examples of this in the 1549 and 1552 Books of Common Prayer, although it was so long ago, I don't recall the examples.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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This is not exactly the same, but...flesh and blood.
Hale and hearty. Part and parcel? Hack and slash.
Far and wide (maybe).
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Joined: Sep 2000
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 347 |
Prim and proper.
Neat and tidy.
It occurs to me, though, that there may be a sub-class of these expressions where the words are (almost) always coupled, such as "spick and span". Then again, if they can't be used separately, perhaps they don't qualify as redundant pairings??
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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kith and kin?
and in the negitive, neither fair nor foul? (so it what?)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ship-shape and Bristol fashion?
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
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>Ship-shape and Bristol fashion?  now there's one that's not often heard in the Minnesota woods.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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rack and ruin.
(Bristol fashion?? Background, please)
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stranger
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stranger
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
(Bristol fashion? Background please)
The following sounds plausible:
"Bristol: Ship-shape and Bristol fashion means that everything is neat and tidy. This saying comes from two aspects of the old Bristol docks in the days before the Floating Harbour was established in the 1830s. Bristol had, and still has, one of the largest differences of water level between ebb and flood in the World, something like 10 metres. At low tide ships in the harbour, if not really properly constructed and laden, would either break their backs or their cargoes would shift. Because of this, Bristol ships were always first class in these respects, hence the saying. The Floating Harbour was constructed by Brunel in order to overcome the tide problem. "
source: http://www.briggs13.fsnet.co.uk/book/b.htm
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