"Run the Gambit" ?
Graham Toal
I heard the phrase "Run the Gambit" used recently.
Is this a common expression? If so, what does it
mean? (Also, where does it come from?)
It's probably a mistake from people who've heard the expression
'run the gamut (of ...)' but couldn't quite reproduce it.
You don't run gambits; you play or offer them. A gambit is a chess
move involving a sacrifice; a gamut is a musical scale which you can
run up and down. Interestingly enough, gambit comes from an italian
word meaning 'trip', so if you tried to run a gambit you'd come
to a sticky end :-)
G
PS There's a Dorothy Parker quotation about an actress who
'ran the whole gamut of emotions, from a to b and back again...'
Ralph Yozzo
Is this a common expression? If so, what does it
mean? (Also, where does it come from?)
--
Ralph Yozzo (yo...@watson.ibm.com)
From the beautiful and historic New York State Mid-Hudson Valley.
The Meach
>I heard the phrase "Run the Gambit" used recently.
Ooops! Almost! That's "run the _gamut_"
>Is this a common expression? If so, what does it
>mean? (Also, where does it come from?)
So common among my generation [don't ask] that it is nearly cliche. . .
'gamut' is 'the entire range or extent'. and is usually used with
"...of xyz." Who said, and of what actress, "She ran the gamut of
emotions from A to B."? [Sounds Dorothy Parker-esque. . .]
a *gambit*, BTW, is a move in Chess, in which one player sacrifices a piece
in order to gain the advantage in position.
gamut derives from the Greek letter 'gamma', which was used to represent the
lowest note on the medieval musical scale. . . it has simply expanded from
indicating the entire musical range, to mean the full range of whatever.
--jtm
I can go home now. . . I've used up my whole weekly quota of serious postings!
Roger Lustig
>In article <1993Feb16.1...@watson.ibm.com> yo...@watson.ibm.com (Ralph Yozzo) writes:
>>I heard the phrase "Run the Gambit" used recently.
>Ooops! Almost! That's "run the _gamut_"
>>Is this a common expression? If so, what does it
>>mean? (Also, where does it come from?)
>So common among my generation [don't ask] that it is nearly cliche. . .
>'gamut' is 'the entire range or extent'. and is usually used with
>"...of xyz." Who said, and of what actress, "She ran the gamut of
>emotions from A to B."? [Sounds Dorothy Parker-esque. . .]
Either Parker or Tallulah Bankhead. Gotta check that. May have been said
of Hepburn on Broadway, in fact.
>a *gambit*, BTW, is a move in Chess, in which one player sacrifices a piece
>in order to gain the advantage in position.
[gamut from "gamma"]
>lowest note on the medieval musical scale. . . it has simply expanded from
>indicating the entire musical range, to mean the full range of whatever.
Right. But the derivation is from Gamma-Ut; ut (still used in French
solmization) is what we call "do" in do-re-mi. Gamma is the only
Greek letter used in solmization; right above it we start with the
letters A to G, repeated...
Roger
Yvonne Edwards
>
Do you mean "run the gamut" meaning to cover the whole range ?
_--_|\ Yvonne Edwards email: yvo...@hydra.maths.unsw.edu.au
/ \ Y.Ed...@unsw.edu.au
\_.--._/ <---------------- UNSW Sydney Australia
___________v__________________________________________________________________
Mirabelle Severn & Thames
In article <930216001...@pizzabox.demon.co.uk> gt...@pizzabox.demon.co.uk (Graham Toal) writes:
> From: yo...@watson.ibm.com (Ralph Yozzo)
> I heard the phrase "Run the Gambit" used recently.
>It's probably a mistake from people who've heard the expression
>'run the gamut (of ...)' but couldn't quite reproduce it....
>PS There's a Dorothy Parker quotation about an actress who
>'ran the whole gamut of emotions, from a to b and back again...'
Katharine Hepburn. In, um _The Lake_, I think, but I'm not
sure. Theater, not film.
Naomi
Nick Leverton
>So common among my generation [don't ask] that it is nearly cliche. . .
>'gamut' is 'the entire range or extent'. and is usually used with
>"...of xyz." Who said, and of what actress, "She ran the gamut of
>emotions from A to B."? [Sounds Dorothy Parker-esque. . .]
Dorothy Parker of Katherine Hepburn, allegedly.
>--jtm
>I can go home now. . . I've used up my whole weekly quota of serious postings!
And *I* know what you post from home !!!
Nick
Neville Holmes
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neville Holmes AARNET: Neville...@appcomp.utas.edu.au
Dept of Applied Computing & Maths Phone : +61 03 243 393 or (003) 243 393
University of Tasmania - Launceston Fax : +61 03 243 368 or (003) 243 368
Douglas Harper
>
>Is this a common expression? If so, what does it
>mean? (Also, where does it come from?)
This must be a mutation of "run the gamut", which is so common it's a
cliche. It means "to take on, in sequence, all possible values of a
range". It comes from music, where in medieval times, to run the gamut
was to play every note.
--
Douglas Harper | har...@oracorp.com | +1 (607) 277-2020
ALI0...@unccvm.uncc.edu
things. The facts that the two SOUND similar and that the original meanings
have fallen out of common usage has caused many speakers and writers to con-
fuse the two.
"Gambit" means a strategy or trick; it is derived from ga-ma-ut, the first
three notes of a scale [org.: ga-ma-ut-re. . .; later ut became do and was
considered the 'root' of the scale, but that's another story].
"Gauntlet" was a method of punishing errant soldiers or of tortureing
prisoners of war. The men of the company were lined up in two rows,
facing one another, each man armed with a stout stick. The victem was
made to run down between the two rows; as he passed, each man was to
strike him one blow with his stick. I have read that in some Native
American tribes it was customary to have the 'gauntlet' administered
by the women of the tribe to "add insult to injury;" I cannot run down
the documentation on this, and if anyone can a)document it or b)refute
it, I would be glad to learn the facts.
Another Rust-Belt Yankee Exile in Charlotte!
Any opinions expressed are mine, not those of the Atkins Library.
Bruce Alan Wilson ali0...@unccvm.uncc.edu
Graham Toal
>"Gauntlet" was a method of punishing errant soldiers or of tortureing
>prisoners of war. The men of the company were lined up in two rows,
>facing one another, each man armed with a stout stick. The victem was
>made to run down between the two rows; as he passed, each man was to
>strike him one blow with his stick. I have read that in some Native
Gauntlet in this sense comes from the Swedish word gatlopp, meaning lane.
Also spelt gantlope.
"Gantlet" is a glove from a knight's suit of armor. To throw down your
gantlet in front of someone was to issue a challenge to fight (or to
joust, at least.)
True, but beware thinking that people running the gauntlet (above) were
being hit with gloves :-)
Gantlet and gauntlet are often confused, but I never suspected folks could
include gambit in their confusion. My, my.
Ahem. Gantlet is a very uncommon variant of gauntlet - there's no confusion
because they're the same word. *This* gauntlet comes from the French
gantelet (from Germanic Gant, from Swedish vante - glove)
G
Brian D Diehm
>three notes of a scale [org.: ga-ma-ut-re. . .; later ut became do and was
>considered the 'root' of the scale, but that's another story].
>"Gauntlet" was a method of punishing errant soldiers or of tortureing
>prisoners of war. The men of the company were lined up in two rows,
>facing one another, each man armed with a stout stick. The victem was
>made to run down between the two rows; as he passed, each man was to
>strike him one blow with his stick. I have read that in some Native
>American tribes it was customary to have the 'gauntlet' administered
>by the women of the tribe to "add insult to injury;" I cannot run down
>the documentation on this, and if anyone can a)document it or b)refute
>it, I would be glad to learn the facts.
To add a little more to this:
"Gantlet" is a glove from a knight's suit of armor. To throw down your
gantlet in front of someone was to issue a challenge to fight (or to
joust, at least.)
Gantlet and gauntlet are often confused, but I never suspected folks could
include gambit in their confusion. My, my.
-Brian
--
Brian Diehm
Tektronix, Inc. (503) 627-3437 bri...@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM
P.O. Box 500, M/S 19-286
Beaverton, OR 97077
Roger Lustig
>In article <1993Feb18.0...@cam.compserv.utas.edu.au>
>nho...@leven.appcomp.utas.edu.au (Neville Holmes) writes:
>>How does this fit with "run the gauntlet" ????
>"Run the gambit" and "Run the gauntlet" originally meant two very different
>things.
I'll say! One of them started out as a malapropism, and still is.
It's "run the gamut."
>The facts that the two SOUND similar and that the original meanings
>have fallen out of common usage has caused many speakers and writers to con-
>fuse the two.
And screw one of them up, too.
>"Gambit" means a strategy or trick; it is derived from ga-ma-ut, the first
>three notes of a scale [org.: ga-ma-ut-re. . .; later ut became do and was
>considered the 'root' of the scale, but that's another story].
a) How does a strategy or trick get derived from a musical scale?
b) "Gamut" is derived from the first *one* note of the long scale of
Medieval music: that note is called gamma-ut, from the Greek letter
for G (it's the G on the lowest line of the bass staff) and the
solmization sllable ut, which indeed became "do" later on. Gamma ut
is followed by A re, B mi, and C fa ut. Ut was the lowest note in the
hexachord ut-re-mi-fa-sol-la; G, C, and F could all be ut in that
system.
c) "gambit" is derived from "gamba," the italian word for leg. It's
a tripping-up.
>"Gauntlet" was a method of punishing errant soldiers or of tortureing
>prisoners of war. The men of the company were lined up in two rows,
>facing one another, each man armed with a stout stick. The victem was
>made to run down between the two rows; as he passed, each man was to
>strike him one blow with his stick. I have read that in some Native
>American tribes it was customary to have the 'gauntlet' administered
>by the women of the tribe to "add insult to injury;" I cannot run down
>the documentation on this, and if anyone can a)document it or b)refute
>it, I would be glad to learn the facts.
And it's called a gauntlet because the long line resembled a long-sleeved
glove or gauntlet.
Roger
mck...@ul.ie
> I heard the phrase "Run the Gambit" used recently.
>
> Is this a common expression? If so, what does it
> mean? (Also, where does it come from?)
of it.
I think that the expression commonly used is "run the gamut",
which I take to mean "run through the whole range".
Viz. A cinema critic's comment on the performance of an actress:
"She ran through the whole gamut of emotions from A to B."
--
"Ich am of Irlonde" (medieval fragment used by Yeats)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
John McKeon, Material Science Dept. University of Limerick, Ireland
The Meach
everyone's system has a threaded newsreader!
--jtm
hume smith
GT> From: bri...@tekig5.pen.tek.com (Brian D Diehm)
>"Gauntlet" was a method of punishing errant soldiers or of tortureing
>prisoners of war. The men of the company were lined up in two rows,
>facing one another, each man armed with a stout stick. The victem was
>made to run down between the two rows; as he passed, each man was to
>strike him one blow with his stick. I have read that in some Native
GT> Gauntlet in this sense comes from the Swedish word gatlopp, meaning lane.
GT> Also spelt gantlope.
railways have a term, "gauntlet track", something they use at weigh stations,
which probably derived from this. it's a set of parallel tracks, slightly
offset from each other, one on the scale and one not. the two tracks permit
a train to pulled across the scale for weighing, while not having to have
a scale strong enough to support a locomotive.
just a bit of probably useless trivia for a friday night :-)
--
Hume Smith Look, it's perfectly Sybil.
hume....@acadiau.ca Simple's not well.
hume....@bnr.ca She's lost her throat and her voice hurts...
Graham Toal
:>"Gauntlet" was a method of punishing errant soldiers or of tortureing
:>prisoners of war. The men of the company were lined up in two rows,
:>facing one another, each man armed with a stout stick. The victem was
:And it's called a gauntlet because the long line resembled a long-sleeved
:glove or gauntlet.
Ha! First time I've spotted Roger trotting out a bit of folk-etymology!
G
(I refer you to me previous posting; look up gantlope in your favourite
dictionary, Roger)
Frank R.A.J. Maloney
>
> I heard the phrase "Run the Gambit" used recently.
>
> Is this a common expression? If so, what does it
> mean? (Also, where does it come from?)
>
>It's probably a mistake from people who've heard the expression
>'run the gamut (of ...)' but couldn't quite reproduce it.
Another possibilty might be the expression "to run the
gauntlet."
Here's what I find in Microsoft Bookshelf on this interesting, and
somewhat confused, word (I've edited out the non-ASCII characters):
gaunt-let
also gant-let (gont-lit) (gant-)gaunt-let1 n. 1. A protective glove
worn with medieval armor. 2. A protective glove with a flaring cuff
used in manual labor. 3. A challenge: fling down the gauntlet. 4. A
dress glove cuffed above the wrist. [ME < OFr. gantelet, dim. of gant,
glove, of Germanic orig.]
USAGE: Although gauntlet1 and gauntlet2 are spelled the same in modern
English, they are nevertheless entered as two separate words because of
their different origins. At one time, however, different spellings
distinguished one term from the other. One threw down the gauntlet. One
ran the gantlet. Because of their mutual influence on each other, the
spellings of the two words and of their variants have fallen together
and are interchangeable.
gaunt-let2 (gont-lit) (gant-) n. 1. Two lines of men facing each
other and armed with sticks or other weapons with which they beat a
person forced to run between them. 2. A severe trial; ordeal: The
candidate ran the gauntlet of questions from the press. See Usage note
at gauntlet1. [Alteration of gantelope < Sw. gatlopp : gata, lane +
lopp, course.]
Microsoft Bookshelf (C) 1987 - 1992 Microsoft Corp. All Rights
Reserved. The American Heritage Dictionary and Electronic Thesaurus
are licensed from Houghton Mifflin Company. Copyright (C) 1986, 1987
by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Based upon Roget's
II: The New Thesaurus.
--
Frank Richard Aloysius Jude Maloney
"Well, I'm a little muddled." -- Glinda
David Casseres
(Peter Humphrey) wrote:
>
> In article <88...@tekig7.PEN.TEK.COM> bri...@tekig5.PEN.TEK.COM writes:
>
> > "Gantlet" is a glove from a knight's suit of armor. To throw down your
> > gantlet in front of someone was to issue a challenge to fight (or to
> > joust, at least.)
>
> variant of "gauntlet", with the same meaning.
Aaaaarrrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!!!!!
Everybody listen up! Before posting any more, all participants in this
thread should write down the following words:
gauntlet gantlet gamut gambit
and go look up *all* of them in a *big* dictionary. A real dictionary. A
serious dictionary. Thank you very much.
--
David Casseres
Exclaimer: Hey!
David Casseres
(Frank R.A.J. Maloney) wrote:
[YET ANOTHER post in which a definition of "gauntlet" is used to explain
the
phrase "run the gambit"...]
And of course we've also had definitions of "gamut" offered to explain
"gambit".
Lately I've been seeing a movie in my head: The opera director is casting
for a production of the new opera "Mate in Three," and is auditioning a
soprano. As part of her audition she demonstrates her range by singing
"Pawn to King Four,
Pawn to Queen Four,
Pawn to Queen Three,
Pawn Takes Pawn!"
Later she rehearses a scene with the tenor. They sit on opposite sides of
a Living Chess setup, with chorus members as the pieces, but they do not
move the pieces -- instead the tenor sings "Do," the soprano sings "Re,"
the tenor sings "Mi," and so forth, until suddenly one of the knights on
the board yanks off his gauntlet and hurls it to the ground. Then the
chorus, singing a frenzied gantlope, forms two lines and the tenor and
soprano are forced to run between them until they escape, downstage center,
and mate...