Recently I have used both of the above phrases to describe situations in my life, and I was curious where they came from.
I presume “stringing him along” (or me or her or whoever) comes from fishing somehow, but I don’t know enough about fishing to understand how it makes sense. Seems like the goal in fishing isn’t to “string him along” but to “reel him in”.
I’m even less clear on “let the chips fall where they may”. My guess would be that it has something to do with gambling, not so much poker, but maybe some sort of older game. Not that I could guess at what. On the other hand, I could make up wild and implausible scenarios about it being how to determine guilt in age-old courts or something like that.
So, does anyone know how where these two phrases originate?
I don’t know for certain if this is the origin of that particular phrase, but, in fishing, once a fish is caught, you slide a string up through its gills and attach it to your belt. The fish is thus ‘strung’ along as you continue to fish.
‘Let the chips fall where they may’, I think means to concentrate on the task at hand and not to worry about the mess. Possibly from the act of cutting wood. The wood cutter will concentrate on swinging his axe so that it hits the log accurately, and doe snot worry where the (wood) chips fall.
That doesn’t really fit with the meaning of the phrase - which is to intentionally play something longer than it needs to, or to fail to commit.
There might still be a connection with angling - playing a fish to tire it out before reeling in - although I’m not sure if that’s ever called ‘stringing along’.
Johnny basically has it correct. The phrase seems to be from the US, and is found from the 1850’s as “Hew to the line, let the chips fall where they will,” and “I hew to the line, and let the chips fly in whose face they will.”
I always assumed that “stringing along” came directly from fishing, I always thought fly fishing. I grew up in the days before super fishing line and one “played” a trout so as not to lose him and a fly the fisherman spent hours making. When coaching me after I had hooked a brown or rainbow, my father would often say to “string him (the fish) along” thus lulling the fish into a false sense of security before reeling him in. Years later when fishing for larger game fish in the pacific I heard fishermen use the same phrase.
I am pretty sure Johnny L.A. is correct regarding chopping or using an adz on wood for “let the chips fall where they may”
“Let the chips fall where they may” is probably primarily about hewing wood, but it could also be about the similar process of carving stone, where the small pieces of stone that are removed by your chisel are also called chips.
random guess here, but I’m familiar with a ‘string bet’ in poker (which is highly frowned upon, esp. in casinos.) Instead of properly raising in one statement, e.g. “I’ll raise you $10” when the amount to call is $4, and the raise is $6, a string bet is “I’ll see your $4 bet and I’ll raise you $6.”
That could have an adverse effect of the play of the hand, so perhaps that’s where the phrase comes from?
aldiboronti posted the meaning of “string along” from the OED which is the sense of “to continue with, or support, or go along with,” such as “I’ll string along with you for tonight.”
But, if I read the OP correctly, I think the sense suggested by Mangetout is what we’re after
. IN the OED, this is listed as 15.b
. This meaning is first cited from 1902.
And the sense of 15b seems, IMHO, to derive from the older
.
My observation is, if you notice the first cite from 1812, that is still could be from fishing. Not that it is, but it could be. “Stringing him, or getting him in tow.” Of course, that could always simply be talking about using a rope or line, but the temptation is to relate it to fishing.
I think a better analogy than fishing might be … a pull toy. A kid pulls it around behind him, and it follows him everywhere, but it’s ultimately just a toy. If the kid lets go of the string — stops stringing it along — it stops following. And I think pull toys were probably much more common when the phrase was coined than they are today, so the connection would have been more obvious.
