Chrysti The Wordsmith: Knuckle Down - 1

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith from Montana State University in Bozeman. The idiom knuckle down is verbal shorthand for applying yourself earnestly to a task the other day for example I knuckled down to some housecleaning. An unpleasant project for me and got it done in about three short hours. Knuckle down. Most native English speakers have heard or used this curious expression So let's take a look at his biography. Though the origin of knuckle down is uncertain. A couple of notions have been put forward over the years some reference works point to of all things the game of marbles. A version of this phrase appears in a publication called a new general English Dictionary dated 1740 where knuckle down is defined as quote a particular phrase used by lads at a play called toff wherein they frequently say knuckle down to your taw or fit your hand exactly in the place where your marble lies. Now ta spelled t a W is an old word for a large shooting

marbles so when an eighteenth century lad knuckled down to his taw he was aligning his fingers and his toff for a serious game of marbles. And this peculiar form of knuckling down may be responsible for the metaphor. Well this is but one theory for the origin of the phrase knuckle down. Join me next time for another possibility. I'm Christie the wordsmith from k g l t f m in Bozeman Montana Christy the wordsmith a 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 sued web dot com.