[Ads-l] "Go the whole/big figure" [Antedating, 1827]

[Bonnie Taylor-Blake]

So, I'm late to learn that there is an idiom involving "go the big figure,"
"go the whole figure," and slight variants. It's an old one and probably
rarely used now, but I did see it on Twitter just last month.

DARE shares this as meaning, "to do something grandly, thoroughly." OED
gives, "to do things on the big figure, to go (or come) the big figure: to
do something on a grand scale; to go the whole figure U.S., to go the whole
way; to act in a thoroughgoing fashion."

Neither of those resources offers what "figure" refers to and its
significance in the idiom has been opaque to me, though maybe it's apparent
to you. Both non-idiomatic "go the whole figure" and "do the whole figure”
show up as instructions in 18th-c British collections of dance directions.
Perhaps, then, the idiom has to do with "figure" in the sense of, as the
OED puts it, "[o]ne of the evolutions or movements of a dance or dancer;
also, a set of evolutions; one of the divisions into which a set dance is
divided." Consequently, "go the whole figure" may have derived from going
through all the (dance) steps.

In any event, the earliest example the OED provides for the idiomatic "go
the whole/big figure" dates to October, 1831. Here are some that precede
that.

-- Bonnie

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People wondered how a man, whose only evident means of support arose from
the petty resources of a clothes' scouring establishment, in a cellar,
opposite the theatre, could find the pewter to go the whole figure in the
way he did: -- the secret was at last explained. [In "Reported for the U.S.
Gazette," The United States Gazette (Philadelphia), 24 August 1827, p. 1.]

To-morrow "Bull Pup" is a whopper -- $30,000, for only $10. I am determined
to "go the whole figure." [The Evening Post (New York, New York), 17
February 1830, p. 3.]

If the temperate societies mean to go "the whole figure," it is manifest
that they must relinquish even small beer and follow the example of the
Friends, who drink water alone, without forming combinations and calling
upon all the world to look at and admire them. [From "Rum! Still Rum! --
Old Song," Columbian Register (New Haven, Connecticut), 24 July 1830, p. 4.)

The Colonel will never get along with his support of anti-masonry, unless
he gives us a lecture about the "cable tow" and the "hailing sign." He has
slept in, and may as well go the whole figure, *murder and treason not
excepted*. [Text within asterisks is in italics; Albany (New York) Argus,
27 August 1830, p. 3.]

Suppose, say some of the farmers, there are not more than ten persons in
the town who will go the whole figure, and approve of repealing our Bank
taxes, and taxing the farmers and workingmen, are they to decide who shall
be Governor, and exclude more than 99 out of 100 as good democrats as ever
went to the polls? [The New-York Morning Herald, 2 September 1830, p. 2.]

When they proposed to exempt the stock of foreigners, and still require the
stock to be continued on our own citizens; Gen. Root said, "No! if you
determine to repeal the tax don't stop half way -- go the whole figure --
be consistent -- don't disgrace your statutes by an act that puts
foreigners over our own citizens." [From "Base Falsehood," Buffalo (New
York) Bulletin, 18 September 1830, p. 2. Reprinted from the New York
Reformer.]

... but if this support of Clay is honest and sincere, and they intend to
go the whole figure for him, why our correspondent Quake has no occasion to
quake at all for the result. It is no match between Old Hickory and Henry
Clay. [A response to "Quake's" letter, appearing in the New York Courier &
Enquirer, reprinted in The Charleston (South Carolina) Mercury, 25 December
1830, p. 2.]

They always "go the whole figure" in Boston. Young Burke is electrifying
the people with his performances, and the people are crowding the theatre,
to excess. [Farmers', Mechanics' & Workingmen's Advocate (Albany, New
York), 16 February 1831, p. 2.]

Bad as Jackson is, the Louisville paper thinks there are others quite as
bad, and a little worse; and therefore the Kentucky editor cannot go "the
whole figure" with the opposition folks, and respond to the sentiment,
anybody rather than he. [The Evening Post (New York, New York, 22 March
1831, p. 2.]

... the call of the Clay meeting recently held in Philadelphia, was
sanctioned by more than 800 names, "more than 200 of whom were formerly
Jackson men!!!" Truly this is what some would term "going the whole
figure." [In "A Thumper!", Gettysburg (Pennsylvania) Compiler, 26 April
1831, p. 4. Reprinted from American Sentinel.]

There is an advertisement in a Philadelphia paper, announcing that there is
to be seen in that city "the model of a principle upon which the U.S. Mail
may be conveyed, without exposure to the depredations of robbers, and at
the rate of *one hundred miles per hour*." If this is accomplished, as the
Kentuckians would say, it is going "the big figure." [The Alexandria
(Virginia) Gazette, 12 August 1831, p. 2.]

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