Any idea of the origins of this phrase. It seems a little different than most slang-type phrases that have entered our vocabulary in that it has two different meanings.
One example would be when I say, “When I’m at work, my dog has the run of the mill at home.” This seems to mean has full access to the entire area.
The other way I’ve heard the phrase used is when I say, “That beagle of mine, he’s no run-of-the-mill dog!” This implies he his extraordinary in some way.
Anyone know the origins of either or both meanings? Also, can you think of other phrases like this that seem to have two very distinct meanings?
Okay, that could explain example two. How about the first example os “having the run of the mill?” And what about the dual meanings for the same phrase?
My old Irish grandmother (sorry, that should have read “Me ol’ Erin gran”) explained it one time as being the difference between goods homemade and manufactured at a mill in either England or one of the factories in Dublin that were sprouting up in her mother’s time.
She said that all the women of rural sock would make cloth at home which was “truly gran’ stock t’was” while that produced by a mill was of a lower quality and especially “dint ha the love” that home-made goods had.
She said that before long, everything average was called “run o’ the mill” but she was sure it started with cloth.
We used to ask her questions by the hour not that her answers were always right (although I think this one might be) but just because we loved to here her speak.
minty green, while I will grant you that “run of the mill” meaning “ordinary” certainly appears to be the more common usage, “run of the mill” to mean “free reign” is certainly a known and understood figure of speech.
Although, its beginnings may be as a mixed metaphor, the phrase now has a dual life. What I’m trying to find is when each usage of the phrase began, and is there a connection to the meanings or did they form independent of each other. (Also if anyone can think of other phrases of this nature with two very different meanings.)
Yeah, I checked Roget’s and a few dictionary and word origin sites. I still think “run of the mill” meaning “free reign” is fairly common. But maybe I’m just dillusional.
I wasn’t able to find any references to “run of the house/yard/etc.” though either to make it a “mixed” metaphor. Nor have I ever heard anyone say he has the “run of the house.” I’m not saying it hasn’t been said/used, just that I’ve always heard it as “having the run of the mill.”
I just ran a google search on “run +of +the house” and found several examples of the phrase in precisely the “free reign” or “no restrictions” meaning you ascribe to “run of the mill at home” in your OP.
Interestingly, google also hits on many examples of “run of the house” hotel rooms, where it means pretty much the same thing as the “ordinary” sense of “run of the mill.”
Okay. I give. I just searched and searched, but amid the thousands of references to “run of the mill” meaning “ordinary,” I found only the prior cite and this one (which I give no weight) using it to mean “free reign.”
Man, I’ve been using this term wrong for a long time. I feel so dirty. Why didn’t anyone ever tell me?
Well, obviously, you need to spend more time hanging around people dedicated to fighting ingnorance.
Seriously, though, I certainly wouldn’t have corrected you if you just tossed the phrase into a post or used it in conversation, since the meaning was clear enough./ But since you asked . . .
I can find a few cites in Mathews, * Dictionary of Americanism* which say mill run referring to lumber of average or standard cut. They go back to turn of the century or so. When, and if, there is a new JE Lighter, American Slang, Vol III, there almost certainly will be an answer.
