toe the line = push the limits

[Joel S. Berson]

Any relationship to sprinters (in track meets) who toe the line at the start?

Joel

At 5/16/2012 09:12 AM, Amy West wrote:
>I searched the ADS-L archives (very quickly) and didn't see anything
>about this there yet (but I may have missed something) . . . .
>
>This is not the first time that I've noticed the use of "toe the line"
>to mean something along the lines of "push the limits of":
>
>--------------
>
> From a FB discussion re: Hildegard of Bingen's recent sainthood:
>
>Wow- and she is seriously wacky so I'm a little surprised. I mean she
>toed the line on heresy for sure.
>
>---------------
>
>Those who know about HvB know that she was very close to being (if not
>outright) heretical in her mystical writings. The rhetor (and I use that
>term specifically because the writing on FB is much more like speech)
>above is not using "toed the line" above to mean, as MWC11 has it, " to
>conform rigorously to a rule or standard." Rather, she's meaning that
>HvB almost crosses the line.
>
>I don't know if the speaker is an ESL speaker or native speaker, but I
>think there's some reanalysis of the phrase going on, and I think we're
>seeing this phrase take on this second meaning opposite to the first.
>(Oh, heck, what is this process called?) And it may be due to the
>influence of the phrase "cross the line." I think I have seen some of my
>students use "toe the line" this way. Once we get editors who use it
>this way, we'll start seeing it in published materials.
>
>---Amy West
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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