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本帖最后由 choi 于 8-17-2020 15:56 编辑
Ben Zimmer, A Long Road from 1850s Horse Racing to Kamala Harris. Wall Street Journal, Aug 15, 2020 (in a column "Word on the Street" that appears every Saturday).
https://www.wsj.com/articles/why ... ng-mate-11597270833
9 consecutive paragraphs:
" * * * How did 'running mate' become the default expression for a vice-presidential candidate?
"Like so much else in the lingo of US politics, the answer lies in horse racing. In the late 18th and early centuries, American political usage became flooded with analogies founded in horse races. To this date, we speak of candidates 'running' for office in 'races' without giving much thought to the original metaphor. 'Dark horse,' 'front runner,' 'vetting' and 'upset' are just a few of the political terms that originated on the racetrack.
"The phrase 'running mate' appeared occasionally in non-racing contexts, such as the 1727 poem 'summer' by Scottish author James Thomson, which includes the line, 'While the quail clamours for his running mate.' But the term truly got its start in the mid-19th century in a particular kind of harness racing, in which two horses raced together in a double harness.
"This racing style debuted in New York in 1858 at the Union Course. The owners of a horse named Ethan Allen, famous as a champion trotter but now 9 years old, organized a harness race against competitor named Lantern, in which each horse was harnessed to a lesser-known partner to share the load of pulling a driver and a cart.
"The race was advertised as 'Ethan Allen and Mate vs Lantern and Mate.' In the Nov 27, 1858 issue of the sporting magazine Porter's Spirit of the Times, a writer mused, 'We could not help smiling at one singular feature which the race presented, in the difference of attention which jockeys and the crowd all paid to each trotter over his running mate.
"Ethan Allen won and and continued his double-harness exploits, most famously imn an 1867 race at Fashion Course in Queens when he was 18. His team's upset against Dexter and his mate was memorialized by the lithographers Currier and Ives.
" * * * double-harness racing waned in popularity * * *
"By 1875, 'running mate' was being used in american politics for a candidate running for a lesser office in the same election as someone at the top of teh ticket {I am clueless about what situations, and can only conjure governorship race].
"The vice-presidential meaning was showcased at the 1888 Democratic National Convention, after President Grover Cleveland's first-term vice president died in office and wasn't replaced. The Connecticut delegation urged fellow Democrats to accept 'a running mate * * * who never was second to any man.' Delegates nominated 74-year-old Sen Allen Thurman, who collapsed twice while making campaign speeches in a losing effort. * * *
Note:
(a) The article is locked behind paywall.
(b) upset
(i) etymology
https://www.etymonline.com/word/upset
("mid-15c, 'to set up, fix,' from up (adv) + set (v). * * * Modern sense of 'overturn, capsize' (1803) is that of obsolete overset")
(ii)
(A) upset (competition)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upset_(competition)
("The meaning of the word has sometimes been erroneously attributed to the surprising defeat of the horse Man o' War by the horse Upset (the loss was the only one in Man o' War's career); the term pre-dates that 1919 race by at least several decades")
(B) Upset (horse)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upset_(horse)
(c) "While the quail clamours for his running mate"
(i) James Thomson (poet, born 1700)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Thomson_(poet,_born_1700)
(c 1700 – 1748; "known for his poems The Seasons * * * and for the lyrics of "Rule, Britannia! [whose celebrated line is 'Rule, Britannia! rule the waves' ")
In 1830 he published The Seasons, made up of four poems: Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.
(ii) I search the Web and find no explanation or analysis for the poems (Summer at least, and The Season in general) -- likely because the poems were written in plain English.
If one searches YouTube.com with (quail running) -- no quotation marks -- one will easily find videos where quails run, not in a pair (as the term running mate suggests) but by itself -- despite en.wikipedia.org for quail does not say the bird runs (or flies, either: the fact is it can fly, but not long distance).
(d) "This [double-harness] racing style debuted in New York in 1858 at the Union Course."
(i) harness racing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harness_racing
("Harness racing is a form of horse racing in which the horses race at a specific gait (a trot or a pace). * * * [section 1 Breeds:] In North America, harness races are restricted to Standardbred horses * * * The horses have proportionally shorter legs than Thoroughbreds, and longer bodies. [The same section continues, saying Standardbred came from Thoroughbreds] )
This page does not talk about double-harness racing, for reason unknown. However, I have not seen double-harness racing in real life, and google the term and can find nothing.
(A) harness racing
https://www.britannica.com/sports/harness-racing
("Origins [which is sectional heading]. Early records of the antecedents of harness racing are ancient. Assyrian kings of 1500 BC * * * chariots")
(B) To understand trot, you need not watch a video of slow motion. The first photo in the preceding Wiki page says it all: The horse's right front leg and left hind leg are moving forward, whereas the other two are on the ground.
(C) How does a horse walk? See horse gait
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_gait
("The walk is a four-beat gait * * * When walking, a horse's legs follow this sequence: left hind leg, left front leg, right hind leg, right front leg, in a regular 1-2-3-4 beat")
Horse Walking in Slow Motion. YouTube.com, uploaded by motomanfilms on May 3, 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAB3XCKY34c
(ii) Union Course
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Course
(1821-1872; in Queens, New York City)
(e) "a horse named Ethan Allen * * * the sporting magazine Porter's Spirit of the Times * * * His team's upset against Dexter and his mate was memorialized by the lithographers Currier and Ives."
, because Wikipedia has another for it. See next.
(i) The namesake of the horse is Ethan Allen
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethan_Allen
(1738 (Connecticut) - 1789 (Vermont);
He is known for successfully demanding, in 1775, the surrender of Fort Ticonderoga from Britain (strength: Allen 83 militia men v 48 army defenders; see table in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_of_Fort_Ticonderoga
, and the founding of Vermont Republic (1777 - 1791 (the year Vermont was admitted into United States) ).
Fort Ticonderoga
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Ticonderoga
("The name 'Ticonderoga' comes from the [Native Americans] Iroquois word tekontaró:ken, meaning 'it is at the junction of two waterways' ")
The significance of capturing Fort Ticonderoga is its asset: cannons. General George Washington a year later used the cannons to break Siege of Boston.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Boston
(Apr 19, 1775 – Mar 17, 1776)
The British army sieged Boston (which at that time was a land mass connected through a causeway to the mainland), trapping colonists in Boston. After Washington had cannons transported to Dorchester heights and trained (but did not fire) them (cannons) at British surrounding forces -- -- 螳螂捕蟬，黃雀在後 -- British army and loyalists departed to Nova Sotia. To this date, Bostonians celebrated Mar 17 as Evacuation Day, a pretext to celebrate St Patrick's Day (because it is unlawful to celebrate an Irish holiday over other ethnic groups').
(ii) Spirit of the Times
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_the_Times
(1831- ; founded by William T Porter and his brothers; based in New York City; "By 1856, all of the Porter brothers were dead except William. The paper split at some point, one branch called the Spirit of the Times, the other Porter's Spirit of the Times. Porter died in 1858') )
The two branches of the spit both ended in 1861, when they were sold (but publication name continued).
(iii) Two lithographs in Library of Congress of the same day (June 21, 1867) at the same place (Fashion Course), and by the same firm (Currier & Ives). The difference is the first was published in 1872 and the second, in "c 1867."
• The celebrated trotting Stallion Ethan Allen in double harness, with running mate: Driven by Dan Mace, trotting against Dexter to Sulky on the fashion course, L.I. June 21st 1867, winning in three straight heats in the unparalleled time of 2:15 2:16 2:19. Library of Congress, undated.
https://www.loc.gov/item/90715692/
, which apparently is of the same race as
WH De Puy, The People's Cyclopedia; Universal Knowledge, with numerous appendixes invaluable for reference in all departments of individual life and with the pronunciation and orthography conformed to Webster's Dictionary. New York: Phillip & Hunt, 19th ed (1887) vol 4, at page 2096
https://books.google.com/books?i ... %201867&f=false
("Ethan Allen and running mate, at Fashion Course Long Island, June 21, 1867, beaten Dexter and mate. Time 2:15, 2:16. 2:19")
• Ethan Allen and Mate and Dexter: In their wonderful race, over the fashion course, L.I. June 21st 1867. Library of Congress, undated.
https://www.loc.gov/item/2001697232/
In this lithography, Dexter raced alone without mate.
(A) heat (n): "(count[able] noun) a preliminary round in a race or contest <winners of the regional heats>"
https://www.lexico.com/definition/heat
(B) Robert Hunter, John A Williams and Sidney John Herrtage (eds), The American Encyclopaedic Dictionary; A ... work of reference to the English language defining over 250,000 words ... Containing over one hundred maps and diagrams and nearly four thousand illustrations. Chicago: RS Peale and JA Hill (1897), vol 12, at page 814
https://books.google.com/books?i ... tionary&f=false
("straight heats. Heats of any races which re run in succession by one horse")
(C) sulky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulky
(iv) Currier and Ives
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currier_and_Ives
(an "American printmaking firm based in New York City from 1835 to 1907")
(v) Fashion Course was indeed in Queens, which sits on (western end of) Long Island.
(vi) Double-harness racing should not be confused with
scurry driving
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scurry_driving
("a pair of ponies pull a carriage [seated by TWO drivers]around a course of cones * * * started * * * in 1968")
(f) "The vice-presidential meaning was showcased at the 1888 Democratic National Convention, after President Grover Cleveland's first-term vice president died in office and wasn't replaced.
(i) 1884 United States presidential election
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18 ... esidential_election
(table: Grover Cleveland with Thomas A Hendricks [who died a year later, in 1885] of Democratic Party defeated James G. Blaine with John A Logan of Republican Party)
(ii) Grover Cleveland came back to win the 1892 presidential election, overcoming his 1888 rival and sitting president Benjamin Harrison, of Republican Party.
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发表于 8-17-2020 15:46:58
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