"Stay the Course"

[Baker, John]

        In addition to giving well-deserved credits to Fred Shapiro and Kathleen Miller, Safire's column this week asks about "stay the course," which he suggests may be rooted in a nautical metaphor.  While he may be right, legal usage is also a possible source.  Here are two early uses:

        "The defendant, by the practice of the court, has a right to surrender his principal, until eight days in term have elapsed after the return of the writ. This being the first day of the term, the defendant does not stand in need of our interference to make the surrender. If that be made in time, the proceedings in this suit will be stayed of course, on a proper application for the purpose."  Ellis v. Hay, 1 Johns. Cas. 334 (N.Y.Sup. 1800).

        "I conceive that the true sense and sound construction of the acts of assembly, relative to this subject, require that the time which passed prior to the first, and subsequent to the last, act, suspending the operation of the limitation act, must be reckoned in computing the time the limitation act has run against the plaintiffs' right of action, before he commenced his suit; and that the suspending acts operated only to interrupt and stay the course of the act of limitations for the times respectively mentioned by them, and did not establish any other period than was before established for the commencement of its operation."  Hicks' Ex'rs v. Pouncey, 1 Brev. 115, 3 S.C.L. 115, 1802 WL 521 (S.C.Const.App. Apr 1802).

        Admittedly, there is a problem with this possible origin:  "Stay the course" in a legal sense means a halt or suspension of a legal proceeding.  "Stay the course" in the modern sense means to persevere in a course of action to its conclusion.

John Baker