A peeve of mine. I see this more and more lately. People use the expression “Tow the line.” I believe the expression should be “Toe the line.” I believe it goes back to the day of bare knuckle boxing, or fighting, where a line would be drawn or scratched in the dirt and the two fighters would be required to stand facing each other with their toes against the line. At a signal, they would commence thrashing each other until one or the other was knocked off his feet or out of the ring or wherever; that would signal the ending of a round. After a rest, the fighters were again required to “toe the line” or to stand facing each other again with their toes against the line. If a man was unable to “toe the line,” he was declared the loser of the fight.
Sometimes the line does need to be relocated. Hence, towing the line.
The other etymology I’ve heard is that the UK House of Commons has lines on the carpet in front of the Government and Opposition benches, and it is VERY bad form to cross those lines in debate.
A few years back, someone on this board kept typing “toe.” I was about to get all in his face about it, but I thought I’d better look it up first, just in case I was about to make a fool of myself. Good thing!
I thought that it meant lining up at a real or imaginary line, so that everyone’s toes are even.
Towing makes a lot more sense to me. Imagine a barge with a rope, or line, to pull it upriver with. It takes ten men pulling on the line to move the barge. If on isn’t, and is making everyone else work hard, he’s not “towing the line.”
The ones that annoy me the most are the ones that were formerly foreign words that made their way into the English lexicon. Among them, the ones that make me go “ARGH!” are:
“Chow” when it’s supposed to be “ciao”
“Wala” when it’s supposed to be “voilà” - this one is just especially idiot to me because “wala” doesn’t even look right when it’s written down.
And I think a couple days ago, I got a glimpse of someone on these boards use “toot sweet”. Ummm… no no no NO. What the hell is that even suppose to convey? If you really think about how the two words are strung together, it makes no god damn sense. “Toute suite”, people!
An acquaintance of mine once served time in a medium security prison. It looked like a small college campus with a large fence around it.
He said he wasn’t behind bars. He lived in a dorm. But four or five times a day he had to toe the line. That is, stand on a line on the floor to prove that he was still “present” at the facility.
Actually, this phrase originated in the military, where it was regarded as an unfortunate necessity to fire a TOW wire-guided missile at someone who was untruthful. Thus, the correct spelling of this term is “TOW the lyin’.”
I always thought “toeing the line” was a bad thing. That is, I know it means conforming to a standard or playing by the rules but I always thought if it as the opposite of that. Like if you’re that rebellious kid, you’re going to put your toe just over the line to annoy your teacher/coach…
tow the line – That’s never correct.