"leaps and bounds"

[Baker, John]

        What would it mean to say that one phrase was "derived from" the
other?  "Leaps and bounds" "derives" from the verb "to leap," which
derives from Middle English lepen and Old English hleapan, and the verb
"to bound," which derives from Middle French bondir.  The words are
different (the "bounds" in "metes and bounds" is a noun that derives
from Anglo-French bounde), the meanings are different, and the parts of
speech are different (although you can say "he moves by leaps and
bounds" as well as "he leaps and bounds," and the former is more common
when a figurative meaning is intended).  The most that can be said is
that "leaps and bounds" may have been influenced by its coincidental
similarity of sound to "metes and bounds."


John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Nathan Bierma
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 8:54 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: "leaps and bounds"

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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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org