![]() ![]() Archive of Landscape Architect Shogo Myaida - Artworks, Architectural Plans, Blueprints. ![]() Archive of Landscape Architect Shogo Myaida - Photographs.Archive of Landscape Architect Shogo Myaida - Watercolors, Sketch, Etchings and Photographs.Archive of Landscape Architect Shogo Myaida - Biographical Information and Miscellaneous Documents.Archive of Artist Ray Johnson: A Bad Archive.Saidie Scudder Archival and Book Collection - Highlighting Books Published with Illustrations from the Original Pre-Publication Artworks in the Saidie Scudder Archival Collection.Saidie Scudder Archival and Book Collection - Dorothy and Marguerite Bryan Book Collection.Saidie Scudder Archival and Book Collection - Highlighting Selected Original Pre-publication Artworks.RoseMarie Salerno Dollhouses and Miniatures Literature Collection.Joan Hoerger Fern Place Elementary School Library "Letters to Authors Project".Highlighting Selected New Additions to the American Juvenile Collection.Ellen Conford Personal Archives and Juvenile Book Collection.Berta and Elmer Hader Books Housed within the American Juvenile Collection.Archival Vertical File of Diana Spirt, Ph.D.American Juvenile Collection Toggle Dropdown.Archive of the Metropolitan New York College Career Planning Officer's Association.Archive of the Long Island Book Collectors.Rozea's First Home Run Baseball Hit at LIU Post Hutton II / Joan King Chapin Families - Home Archives of the Sigma Beta Epsilon Fraternity - Ephemera.Archives of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity - Ephemera.Archive of Melvin Sylvester - Tau Kappa Epsilon.Archive of Melvin Sylvester - Miscellaneous.Archive of Melvin Sylvester - Guide to Periodicals.Archive of Mary and Buck Lai Personal Family Photo Albums and Scrapbooks.Archive of LIU Post - Office of Campus Life.Archive of LIU Post - Loomings Art and Literature Magazine.Archive of LIU Post - Long Island University Magazine.Archive of LIU Post - The Little Review.Archive of LIU Post - Fraternities and Sororities.Archive of Landscape Architect Shogo Myaida - Home.Archive of Joan and John Digby - Private Press Publications.Post Horse Shows and Equestrian Life - Miscellaneous Items Post Horse Shows and Equestrian Life - Press Clippings Post Horse Shows and Equestrian Life - Photographs Post Horse Shows and Equestrian Life - Home Selected Writings & Provenance Information Come to think of it, I don’t remember the last time I heard anyone say chop-chop.Įxcept when ordering a gin and tonic, of course. And hardly anybody goes hell for leather nowadays. ![]() I haven’t heard anyone say posthaste for a long time. I had a head-strong dog once that made an exasperating career out of escaping our back yard and running away “hell-bent for leather.” I admit that I harbored a few dark thoughts about her future from time to time. Hell-bent for leather refers to a cow that was so hard to handle that the wrangler considered slaughtering it and converting it into leather. The former refers to an arduous walk through rugged terrain, one that usually destroyed the man’s shoes. “Hell for leather,” on the other hand, is often confused with hell-bent for leather. “Hey, sweetheart, bring me another gin and tonic, chop-chop!” “Chop-chop” itself would probably have never gained a foothold if Canton hadn’t been flooded with English sailors who found the phrase useful. Chop-chop comes from Canton Chinese meaning, hurry-hurry.Ĭanton, of course, was a major Chinese seaport and the eastern terminus of the ancient Silk Road, a mercantile travel route that brought silk and other valuable commodities from China and Japan to Europe. Synonyms for posthaste include apace, briskly, double quick, fleetly, chop-chop and hell for leather. Shakespeare liked the phrase and used it in a scene from “Richard II”: “Old John of Gaunt hath sent post haste to entreat your majesty to visit him.” In another play, Cassio says to Othello, “the Duke requires your post haste appearance.” Maybe to encourage his horse to greater speed if a Comanche war party was hot on his heels. I can’t imagine that any of those hard-riding mailmen ever uttered the phrase, posthaste, however. We did the same thing later in America and called it the Pony Express. Delivering an urgent letter back then required galloping through the dark of night and changing horses frequently to get the job done “posthaste.” A courier on horseback was called a post. What antique chapter of language history did a phrase like “post haste” come from? Someone asked me to do something the other day, and then suggested I do it “posthaste.” No way could I let that go unchallenged. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |