3 ms·
Strange phrasing, a long-shot is something unlikely. "A long chalk" might work, but a britism.
by jjgreen 3y ago
Strange phrasing, a long-shot is something unlikely. "A long chalk" might work, but a britism.
- raxxorraxor 3y agoNot a native English speaker, but I often heard it in a context where it meant "by quite some margin". Not saying they weren't all wrong though.
- jjgreen 3y agoIn the UK, "a long shot" is something unlikely to succeed, and the artillery metaphor is understood, but I've never heard "by a long shot", where the "long shot" is the margin/distance by which the target is missed. Language eh?
- tssva 3y ago"longshot" means something unlikely because it refers to long range naval gun shots being inaccurate and unlikely to hit their target. These long range shots were known for not only missing their targets but missing them by a wide margin. In US English the common idiom "by a longshot" meaning by a wide margin developed based upon this.
- jjgreen 3y agoInteresting, thanks. Shaw was right, we are separated by a common language.