Not a leg to stand on

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on January 11, 2009 at 11:54

In Reply to: Not a leg to stand on posted by Sally Voorheis on January 11, 2009 at 08:41:

: Could you go into detail of how (in church history, dealing with the split around 1054) this phrase originated - "Not a leg to stand on"?

The phrase has nothing inherently to do with church history; it's just a folksy way of describing something that has no support. The metaphor probably refers to furniture rather than human legs; years ago we used to have four-legged, three-legged and even one-legged stools. All of these had functionality, but a stool without a single leg to stand on was incapable of supporting you! (VSD)

• Not a leg to stand on Smokey Stover 12/January/09