[Ads-l] "face the music" etymology (?)

[Dan Goncharoff]

Interesting.

Now, do we have an explanation for "staring us in the face"?

DanG


On Fri, Jul 10, 2020 at 4:57 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu> wrote:

> Many explanations of "face the music" have been offered, and the meaning
> and application of the phrase may have become more broad over time, but an
> origin solution may have been in effect staring us in the face.
> The face seems less problematic than the music. Face: meet, encounter,
> confront, engage (come to Limerick, etc.). But what music? Stage fright
> while facing a pit orchestra? Hear some Mozart? Dance? Calm a horse next to
> a marching band? Being drummed out of the corps for cowardice? All unlikely.
> The sense of face the music, in early use --reported on ads-l from 1834 in
> the US--is a call to be brave.
> Many dictionaries report an earlier, outlier, jarring meaning for music:
> gunfire, battle sounds.
> Early uses of the phrase encourage joining the noisy fray, originally
> military, then also political and others, eventually, in later use, also
> taking punishment for some past act.
> Examples already reported seem to support this development.
> ?
> Stephen
>
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>

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