"leaps and bounds"

[Charles Doyle]

"Metes and bounds" is a legal term, applied to real estate divisions.  In 1621 it was already being used figuratively, idiomatically:

<< He [God] suffereth his owne that are most deere vnto him to be iustled to the wall . . . . the Church complaineth in the Psalmes. Psal. 66. 12. Thou hast made men to ride ouer our heads. But in the meane time he hath the bridle and holdeth the reynes in his owne hands to curbe and keepe them in, when they would go too farre, passe the metes and bounds that he hath set them. >>  --Henry Finch, The Calling of the Jewes (1621)

Quite possibly the idiom "by metes and bounds" antedates "by leaps and bounds."  The question, of course, is whether "leaps and bounds" DERIVES FROM "metes and bounds," presumably by folk etymology (“metes” having become obsolete and, therefore, opaque).  A major problem with that hypothesis is that the two expressions have very different meanings; one denotes limitation, the other expansiveness, explosiveness.

However, negative hypotheses of the "sound refutation" sort are difficult to PROVE!

--Charlie
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---- Original message ----
>Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 08:53:33 -0400
>From: Nathan Bierma <nbierm65 at CALVIN.EDU>
>Subject: "leaps and bounds"
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU

>>A reader was told by a real estate teacher that the phrase "leaps and bounds" was derived from the phrase "by metes and bounds." I can't find any support for this, but I can't find anything else on "leaps and bounds" in the ASD-L archive, or anywhere else. Can anyone soundly refute this?
>
>
>Nathan Bierma
>"On Language" columnist
>Chicago Tribune
>www.nbierma.com/language

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