know the score

[Sean Fitzpatrick]

I don't have any historical perspective on this, but I have heard "know the score" used both ways.

I have usually heard "know the score" used in the narrow sense of "not knowing what o'clock it is", that is, ignorant of recent developments.

The ganzemacher knows the score in the broad musical sense, but the girl who is being two-timed doesn't know the score in the narrow sports sense.  I don't know which came first, the eggcorn or the chick and delight, but I can see false etymology following so closely on the origin that it hardly matters.

Seán Fitzpatrick
Irony-free zone:  Abandon tropes, all ye who enter here.
http://www.logomachon.blogspot.com/
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Cohen, Gerald Leonard 
Sent: Saturday, 11 September, 2004 15:43
Subject: Re: know the score


        "To know the score" almost certainly derives from music, because that's
where "knowing the score" is a bona fide accomplishment, a sign of thoroughly knowing what's going on.  By contrast, anyone paying even minimal attention at a sporting event will have a pretty good idea what the score is. And if  there's any doubt, a quick look at the scoreboard will remove it."Knowing the score" at the sporting takes no special talent or effort at all.

Gerald Cohen