[Pan-users] Re: Re: [OT] Pan Docs 070101

[Graham]

On Sun, 7 Jan 2007 21:18:07 +0000
Brad Rogers <address@hidden> wrote:

> Because it /should/ be "toe the line".

No, no.

When you "tow the line" you join the team pulling narrowboats along the
British canal system on the towpath (note, not the "toe path").  The
"navvies" (or navigators), the people who actually carved out the canal
system in the early 18th century used this expression a lot.  Later on,
horses were (sometimes) used for pulling the narrowboats and barges,
but you still needed to join the team to "tow the line" (pull the rope
or "line" attached to the narrowboat) or it could not move properly.

Hence an individual could not do as he wished but had to join the
team.  There were Regulations about how narrowboats could be managed,
and these were imposed by Acts of Parliament; one of those
Regulations includes the phrase "tow the line".

It seems that this phrase was taken up by the military, whether British
or American, and changed to the crude "toe the line", but its origins
are quite clear.  "Tow the line" is thus the correct early usage.

However, as this topic concerns itself about etymology in the
production of documents, let me add my favourite hate: program instead
of programme (Alan Turing would have turned in his grave!).  But being
an "old duffer" weeks away from my 60th birthday, I suppose I am stuck
in the past a bit....

I don't suppose we can do much about it now, and the only advice I can
give to the compiler of the documentation is to use words and phrases
that are instantly recognisable by his target audience but which at the
same time can be "translated" by computer software correctly to bring
the same or nearly the same meaning in other languages.
-- 

Graham

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