"Stay the Course"

[Sam Clements]

I should also add my congrats to Fred and Kathleen.

The earliest "stay the course" reference I can find is in Christine Ammer's
Am. Heritage  Dictionary of Idioms,  talking about a 1916 horse race.  Has
this been antedated?  And why the nautical sense that Safire referred to?

SC
----- Original Message -----
From: "Baker, John" <JMB at STRADLEY.COM>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2003 12:24 PM
Subject: "Stay the Course"


>         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
>