"leaps and bounds"

[Baker, John]

        Nathan responded to my message by private email:  "yes, loosely,
I just meant that the phrase "leaps and bounds" would, according to this
theory, be traced back to "metes and bounds," the two phrases having
been conflated in eggcorn-like fashion at some point (despite their
opposite meanings). If anyone can support that theory, I'd be
interested. I have my doubts."

        Nathan also mentioned that he had tried to post this reply to
ADS-L but for some reason was unsuccessful, which is why I have quoted
him here.

        I just don't see any evidence of any kind of conflation of the
phrases.  "Metes and bounds," of course, is a legal term referring to
boundaries and is quite an old phrase; Charles Doyle has already posted
a use from 1621.  In modern use, at least, the noun "mete" seems to be
found only in this phrase, although the related verb "to mete" is
sometimes seen; similarly, the noun "bound" is uncommon, although the
verb "to bound" is seen frequently.  "Metes" and "bounds," in this
context, are synonyms.  Such redundant phrases are common in English,
especially in traditional legal writing.  For example, a testator in a
"will and testament" will "leave, devise and bequeath" the "rest,
residue and remainder" of his estate.

        "Leap" and "bound" refer to movement by big jumps, and both
words are common both as verbs and as nouns.  Although "leaps" and
"bounds" are synonyms, "leaps and bounds" is not a legal phrase, and the
early uses refer to actual leaps and bounds.  I see no references
suggesting any sort of metaphorical or other relationship to "metes and
bounds," to boundaries, to legal documents, or to anything else of the
sort.  I haven't checked the OED, but the earliest use I see is from
Pope's translation of the Odyssey (1725 - 1726), Book X, where the nouns
are used:

<<As from fresh pastures and the dewy field
(When loaded cribs their evening banquet yield)
The lowing herds return; around them throng
With leaps and bounds their late imprison'd young,
Rush to their mothers with unruly joy,
And echoing hills return the tender cry>>


        Many of the early uses involve the literal use of the words as
verbs.  From the Southern Literary Messenger (1835) (Making of America):

        <<Under this arch a pellucid rivulet gently ripples, till
reaching the brink of the acclivity below, it leaps and bounds towards
the river.>>


        Figurative uses go back to at least the first half of the 19th
century.  From Archibald Alison, Miscellaneous Essays 226 (1860) (Making
of America) (reprinting essays previously published in England,
apparently before 1844):

        <<The labour of investigation was not adapted to his powers; he
had too much warmth and vehemence of disposition for laborious
application; his mind proceeded by leaps and bounds, but sometimes they
were prodigious.>>


        I feel sure that the figurative example can be antedated, and
perhaps the literal examples as well, but I would be very surprised if
any evidence of conflation with "metes and bounds" emerged.


John Baker



-----Original Message-----
From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
Of Baker, John
Sent: Tuesday, August 15, 2006 10:47 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "leaps and bounds"

        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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