Ancient wisdom, or my own? (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill CIV (US)]

Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

>
> Don't y'all reckon that the saying about riding a tiger could be
> considered a variant of the proverbial "holding a tiger by the tail"
> (it is dangerous to keep holding on, but deadly to let go)--a metaphor
> for certain dilemmas?  Versions of that concept appear at least as
> early of the 1850s.*   And it, in turn, is perhaps an adaptation of
the
> proverbial "holding a wolf by the ears," current in Classical times,
> and re-introduced to Europe (including England) by Erasmus's _Adagia_
> in the early 16th century.

OED has "fight the tiger" (1851) and "bucking the tiger" (1863) = to
play the gambling game of faro.  Could the phrase be related to kicking
the habit of gambling?
>
> * For some reason (or no reason), the "advanced search" feature for
> Google Books no longer allows me to search by date.  What's up with
> that??
>
Try this link:
http://www.google.com/advanced_book_search

And they've hidden the google news archive search a little more deeply,
too.

http://news.google.com/archivesearch




Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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