Hidebound

Hi

Yes, you can. "Hidebound by tradition" is a set phrase in English - someone who is very narrow in their views because of their upbringing. However, you can use the same structure in different ways...

- He is quiet by nature

- Not so good at tennis,she is nevertheless cleverer than her sister

- Although beaten on the fifteenth green, he went on to win the ma

Hi,

I am a bit unsure if a phrase like "he is quiet by nature" is really a structural parallel to "he is hidebound by tradition."

To say someone is quiet by nature is to say that he is quiet in terms of his natural temperament (i.e. his nature). Saying someone is old-fashioned in terms of his 'tradition', however, does not seem to make sense to the same extent (I mean, what is a

You are right that "quiet by nature" is not the same grammatically.

Although "hidebound" is an adjective, it can revert to the participle from whence it came to allow it to take an adverbial prepositional phrase. You can be bound by law, so why not hidebound by tradition? (Truth be told, I don't like it either, and I agree with your original assessment.)

I agree. I would accept "bound by law," but only by reading "bound" as the participial form of 'bind' rather than as an adjective.

My problem with reading 'hidebound' as a participle is that the verb 'hidebind' doesn't exist (I think).

But then, as I said, if 'hidebound by tradition' is indeed a very common usage then I am not going to complain. There are always aspects to a lang

SuperESLthe verb 'hidebind' doesn't exist (I think)

Don't hate me—I just had to look it up. The Shorter Oxford calls the verb "hidebind" "now rare" and attests it from the middle of the seventeenth century, defining it as you would expect and claiming that it is a back-formation from "hidebound".

This settles it, then. This would allow me to read "he is hidebound by tradition" as meaning 'tradition hidebinds him," with 'hidebound' serving as a participle and not an adjective.

Thank you!

Hi

I'm not sure if I can comment further on the details of structure

For the record, here is a fairly recent jazz review that has "hidebound by tradition" as a set phrase - in the first sentence, and in a couple of the comments after

Best wishes

Dave

Here is the link!

http://www.amazon.com/forum/classical%20music?_encoding=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2O5YQ79OVJBUQ&cdThread=Tx12TV26AQLDI05

Thank you for the link. I'm sure you are correct that a lot of people use the phrase 'hidebound by tradition.' It's just that I am not sure whether the word hidebound functions as a participle or an adjective in it.

Thank you.

Hi

I would say it is definitely an adjective - dic.com has this, and gives no formal verb that it could come from

It is originally a metaphor. Cattle that have fed on a very meagre diet are hidebound. Their hide binds them so much that their bones can clearly be seen beneath their skin

In the same way, a person who has only taken in their own tradition - and has not ta