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Victor_yyg Posted 21 years ago
Vocabulary
about “Make both ends meet ”
can anybody tell me what is the origin of the idiom : Make both ends meet ?
Top answer
Manage so that one's financial means are enough for one's needs, as in On that salary Enid had trouble making ends meet . This expression originated as make both ends meet , a translation from the French joindre les deux bouts (by John Clarke, 1639). The ends , it is assumed, allude to the sum total of income and expenditures.
- Manage so that one's financial means are enough for one's needs, as in On that salary Enid had trouble making ends meet .
- This expression originated as make both ends meet , a translation from the French joindre les deux bouts (by John Clarke, 1639).
- The ends , it is assumed, allude to the sum total of income and expenditures.
- However, naval surgeon and novelist Tobias Smollett had it as “make the two ends of the year meet” ( Roderick Random , 1748), thought to go back to the common practice of splicing rope ends together in order to cut shipboard expenses.
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- Manage so that one's financial means are enough for one's needs, as in On that salary Enid had trouble making ends meet. This expression originated as make both ends meet, a translation from the French joindre les deux bouts (by John Clarke, 1639). The ends, it is assumed, allude to the sum total of income and expenditures. However, nav
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