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Turn the tables

Posted by ESC on June 24, 2000

In Reply to: Tables will turn posted by Bruce Kahl on June 21, 2000

: I have usually heard it as "if the tables were turned", meaning if the situation were different.
: For example, if an abusive supervisor at your job were to be demoted and you got his/her job then the tables were turned!

TURN THE TABLES - "Collecting antique tables was a fad among wealthy men in ancient Rome, we're told. When these collectors chided their wives about expensive purchases, the women turned them towards these antique tables and reminded their husbands of their own extravagances, 'turning the tables on them.' A good story, but there is no evidence that it is true. The expression 'to turn the tables' doesn't date from Roman times, is only 400 years old, and possibly derives from the game of backgammon. In backgammon, formerly called 'tables' in England, the board is usually divided into two 'tables.' One rule of the complicated game allows a player to double the stakes in certain situations and literally turn the tables. Another possibility is that the phrase comes from the old custom of reversing the table or board in chess, which enabled a player at a disadvantage to shift the disadvantage to his opponent." From Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins by Robert Hendrickson (Fact on File, New York, 1997)

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