# turns of phrase

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-of-phrase/201088>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [September 12, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-of-phrase/201088 "2003-09-12T00:23:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cleops](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/2acd7d/32.png) [@cleops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cleops)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-of-phrase/201088/1 "2003-09-12T00:23:42Z")

</div>

In an article by Alan Cowell in the NYTimes, he says that the Swedish minister who was fartally stabbed was “tipped” to be a candidate for president. Cowell used the word twice. Where did this usage come from?  
And, in another unrelated article in another publication, Fouad Ajami says something like, “you don’t have to go that far to count the cats in Zanzibar.” What does “counting the cats in Zanzibar” mean?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-of-phrase/201088/2 "2003-09-12T00:41:14Z")

</div>

“Tipped” is, I believe, a Britishism of long standing.

The cats in Zanibar are beyond my ken. So to speak.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-of-phrase/201088/3 "2003-09-12T03:04:34Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by cleops \*  
> \*\* who was fartally stabbed \*\*

The real question is, how did he get the knife in there?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\
**Post date:** [September 12, 2003, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/turns-of-phrase/201088/4 "2003-09-12T06:30:46Z")

</div>

“Tipped” is pretty clear; it comes from tipping (predicting) the winner of a race, such as a horserace.  
As for the other one, 30 seconds on Google found:

It is not worth the while to go round the world to count the cats in Zanzibar. – Henry David Thoreau, Walden