Crossing the Pond

Posted by R. Berg on April 17, 2008 at 16:58:

In Reply to: Crossing the Pond posted by Jim McNulty on April 16, 2008 at 22:14:

: I have heard the expression "crossing the pond" for years in reference to crossing the Atlantic. Does anyone know the origin of this phrase?

In the sense of who said it first? Probably not. It's an instance of meiosis, a rhetorical figure--a kind of understatement that plays with something by making it smaller or less significant, the opposite of exaggeration. ~rb