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> tow the party line "toe" not "tow". As in standing with your toes touching a line drawn by the party. Not pulling the party's line - whatever that means.
by triceratops 1y ago
> tow the party line
"toe" not "tow". As in standing with your toes touching a line drawn by the party. Not pulling the party's line - whatever that means.
- foobarian 1y agoTIL about this term's origins! > act of "toeing the line," most likely from a combination of nautical discipline and athletic races. In the Royal Navy, sailors had to stand with their toes against a line on the deck for inspection, while in sports, runners line up with their toes at the starting line And while I'm here I'll mention a couple other terms I never knew about: Slave: > The English word "slave" originates from the word "Slav," which was used in Medieval Latin (\(<<!nav>>sclavus<<!/nav>>\)) to refer to people of Slavic origin who were frequently captured and sold into slavery during the early Middle Ages. Pothole: > A (potentially legendary) origin story suggests the name came from potters digging clay from roads, creating the holes
- Eddy_Viscosity2 1y ago> Pothole The version I heard was that broken pottery was used to fill in the holes that developed naturally in the roads.
- tialaramex 1y agoYes, the metaphor here is that of perhaps a military officer drawing a line and soldiers are expected to stand along the line, so their toes will touch the line. It's about obedience. Early examples are clearly about standing in an orderly formation, and also sometimes use alternative words such as "mark" instead of "line" - which wouldn't make sense for tow. You could tow a line, but it's unclear how one might tow a mark.