[Ads-l] "Hold the fort. I am coming."

[Laurence Horn]

So “holding forth” + “holding the fort”?  (And does the "literally” indicate that an actual fort was involved?)


> On Jan 21, 2018, at 6:04 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> Comment to NYTimes.com:
> 
> "On entering a crowd of men were surrounding a very beautiful woman who was
> _literally holding fort_."
> 
> -- 
> -Wilson
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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