Re: Forest
Posted by ESC on December 27, 2002 In Reply to: Forest posted by John Pursel
on December 27, 2002
: Define: Sometimes the forest gets in the way of the trees.
From the archives:
UNABLE TO SEE THE WOODS FOR THE TREES - From "Heavens to Betsy"
by Charles Earle Funk (Harper & Row, New York, 1955): "Too beset
by petty things to appreciate the greatness or grandeur; too wrapped
up in details to gain a view of the whole. In America we are likely
to use the plural, 'woods,' or possibly to substitute 'forest,'
but 'wood' is the old form and is preferable. Yes, the saying is
at least five hundred years old, and probably a century or two could
be added to that, for it must have been long been in use to have
been recorded in 1546 in John Heywood's 'A dialogue Conteynyng the
Nomber in Effect of all the Prouerbes in the Englishe Tongue.' He
wrote 'Plentie is no deinte, ye see not your owne ease. I see, ye
can not see the wood for trees.' And a few years later, in 1583,
Brian Melbancke, in 'Philotimus: the Warre Betwixt Nature and Fortune,'
wrote: 'Thou canst not or wilt not see wood for trees.' The saying
has cropped up repeatedly from then to the present, becoming, in
fact, more frequent with the passing years."
To access further discussion, do an archives search under "forest."
- Re: Forest John Pursel 12/29/02
(
7)
- Re: Forest Word Camel 12/28/02
(
0)
|