know the score

[Michael Quinion]

Arnold Zwicky wrote:

> *please*.  this is what i was asking for.  we're all agreed on what
> the expression now means, and either history can be rationalized; the
> question is whether there's any evidence.

As others have said, my instinct would have been to go for the
musical origin. But this is in William Tilden's "The Art of Lawn
Tennis" (1921): "I do not believe in trying to win the point every
time you hit the ball. Never allow your concentration on any game to
become so great that you do not at all times know the score and play
to it. I mean both point score and game score."

--
Michael Quinion
Editor, World Wide Words
E-mail: <editor at worldwidewords.org>
Web: <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>