Chrysti The Wordsmith: The Long & the Short of It

Greetings word lovers and welcome to Christie the wordsmith. When we relate the long and short of a matter it's usually the substance the essence of a longer account from which we've omitted the non essential details as in well the long and the short of the story is that I wound up spending the night in jail. But he was given just a slap on the wrist while the expression seems to be just another overworked cliche. It's history and usage make a better story than you might think. First the expression has a long tradition in the English language. It appeared in Shakespeare's 16:00 comic play the Merry Wives of Windsor. Or at least a version of it did in Shakespeare's day the phrase was inverted. The Bard wrote the short and long of it a rendition which makes a certain amount of sense if you prefer your quantities listed from least to greatest. But by the 17th century the expression began appearing as our familiar long and short of it. Contemporary writers rely on this cliche to convey the notion of height variation. A writer for London's Evening Standard wrote an

article for a 2005 issue entitled The short and the long of it. A review of the latest fashion variations on women's shorts tall Hollywood starlets married to shorter leading men is the subject of love. The long and the short of it. An article in a recent edition of London's Sunday Mirror. I'm Christie the wordsmith from a fan in Bozeman Montana. CHRISTIE The wordsmith is sponsored by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Zoot enterprises a high tech firm in Bozeman Montana offering challenging careers and innovative solutions for the financial services industry. Zoot web dot com.