Chrysti The Wordsmith: Turn Over a New Leaf

Greetings and welcome to Christie the wordsmith from Montana State University in Bozeman. When we make plans to abandon a bad habit or reform old undesirable ways we sometimes proclaim I want to turn over a new leaf. How did the rotation of a leaf become associated with positive change. Well the expression relies not on turning tree leaves but rather the pages of a book which have been called leaves since the tenth century before the invention and proliferation of paper. Some manuscripts were literally written on certain types of leaves from the palm tree for example the leaf that means page still survives in the expression leaf through a magazine for example or loose leaf notebook. A leaf LET is a folded piece of paper printed with information. So when we purpose to change by turning over a new leaf we're really saying that we want to go to a blank page in a book to begin metaphorically composing a fresh chapter in our lives. A story goes that after writer Oscar Wilde had been imprisoned for some debauchery or other

a friend urged him to mend his ways and turn over a new leaf. Wilde Agreed but a few days later he was misbehaving again. His friend said Oscar I thought you were going to turn over a new leaf. Wilde retorted Yes but I have not yet gotten to the bottom of the page. I'm Christie the wordsmith from Montana State University in Bozeman special thanks to Brody Kates studio engineer for the series and Philip Gaines who's the consulting editor. Christy 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.