I always thought it was toe. Reading "gray man" book and that author used tow. Which is it ?

Hell, I reckon it could be either, depending on where you come from. I always thought "toe", considering military formations.

It's "toe": Writing tip 221: "Toe the Line" vs. "Tow the Line"

TL;DR: "There's no "towing" or "hauling" involved.

It's like people getting "Long row to hoe" or "Tough row to hoe" wrong and writing it as "long road to hold" or whatever.

Put your toes on the line.

'Toe the line' - used in boxing, like 'come up to scratch'. In bare knuckle fighting there used to be a line in the ring called the 'scratch line'. If you couldn't get up and 'toe the line' or 'come up to scratch', you lost the bout.

Toe. Put your toes on the line, like in a military formation or the scratch line in boxing.

I always heard it was from navies, where sailors lined up with their toes (and on sailing ships, some sailors didn't wear shoes), on the lines of the deck.

And why would it be tow? I can't think of any context where lines are towed. Lines may be hauled or pulled, but the word tow is not used in relation to lines.

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
And why would it be tow? I can't think of any context where lines are towed.

Same reason some people say or write "Long road to hoe." Why would one hoe a road--of any length, much less a long one?

quote:

And why would it be tow? I can't think of any context where lines are towed. Lines may be hauled or pulled, but the word tow is not used in relation to lines.

Canals. They used to tow the barges with horses or people - 'tow the line(s)', but it's not the origin of the phrase which is: 'Toe the line' as explained above/

quote:

Originally posted by ensigmatic:

quote:

Originally posted by jhe888:
And why would it be tow? I can't think of any context where lines are towed.

Same reason some people say or write "Long road to hoe." Why would one hoe a road--of any length, much less a long one?

Maybe it is "long road to 'ho." There used to be a stretch of South Main here in Houston where prostitutes used to work.

'It's a long row ( not 'road') to hoe' as in farming/gardening. A tough or strenuous task.



.

Are there perhaps fishing applications that TOW a line? I agree with TOE, but thought that might be the only other arguable context.

It comes from persons spelling it the way they hear it instead of knowing what it actually means. It is rampant in the current generation, which has no idea of the roots of many sayings. (Or of anything else that matters.)

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by SBrooks:
Reading "gray man" book and that author used tow.

Well, unless he means, literally, hauling/pulling a line/rope/cable of some sort, he's wrong.

Spelled "To"

It's Chinese for "Watch your ass doom fook"

My earliest recollection of the term was in reference to boxing matches that had no set limits. “Toe the line” or “come up to [the] scratch [on the floor]” meant that the boxer was ready to continue the fight. A related term from boxing was, I believe, “throw in the towel” to indicate that the fighter had had enough and wasn’t going to continue.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
It comes from persons spelling it the way they hear it instead of knowing what it actually means.

Yes, and I sometimes wonder if they think about the expressions they use and what they mean. Sometimes alternative words might make some sense, but often not.

The opposite was probably more common at one time among people who read a lot: knowing what a word means without ever having heard it pronounced. I still remember having my pronunciation of “trilogy” corrected, and there are still words whose pronunciation is a mystery to me to this day. Fortunately, an advantage of the Internet is being able to ask to hear them.

As for word usage errors in books, it seems to be more common all the time. Once there was a notion that editors were automatically language usage paragons who knew all the arcane rules and had a sharp eye for picking out the errors. Today I must remind myself that lack of rigor in education affects everyone in all professions.

Plus there’s the fact that if a word is used in a new way—even incorrectly—long enough by enough people, then it becomes correct by definition. Just as Internet dictionaries indicate that “begging the question” can now mean “prompting” or “raising” a question rather than the term’s original meaning, perhaps “tow” the line will become acceptable at some time in the future when the original word has been forgotten by most people.

Yup, toe the line.

When the rubber hit the road... it was in Argentina. That phrase predates tires.

And then, there s 'draggin' the line.'

Gimme some peace of mind and tell me what THAT meant.