"Ax to Grind"

Sam Clements SClements at NEO.RR.COM
Thu Jun 2 23:59:28 UTC 2005


According to Christine Amer in AHD of Idioms,

"...comes from a story by Charles Miner, published in 1811, about a boy who
was flattered into turning the grindstone for a man sharpening his ax.  He
worked hard untill the school bell rang, whereupon the man, instead of
thanking the boy, began to scold him for being late and told him to hurry to
school."

sam clements

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Shapiro" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 11:46 AM
Subject: "Ax to Grind"


> The OED states the following:
>
> "to have axes to grind (orig. U.S. politics): to have private ends to
> serve [in reference to a story told by Franklin]"
>
> Can anyone supply any details as to where the Franklin story referred to
> here is published?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Fred R. Shapiro                             Editor
> Associate Librarian for Collections and     YALE DICTIONARY OF QUOTATIONS
>  Access and Lecturer in Legal Research     Yale University Press,
> Yale Law School                             forthcoming
> e-mail: fred.shapiro at yale.edu               http://quotationdictionary.com
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>



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