" Square pegs in round holes " is an idiomatic expression depicting unusual individualists who can not fit into their community niche.
This metaphor comes from Sydney Smith in "On the Conduct of the Understanding", one of a series of lectures on moral philosophy which he presented at the Royal Institution in 1804-06:
If you choose to represent different parts of life with holes on the table, of various shapes, - some circular, some triangles, some square, some longitude, - and the person who acts these parts with pieces of wood of the same shape, we will generally find that the triangle man has entered the square hole, oval to the triangle, and the square man has squeezed himself into a round hole. Officers and offices, the perpetrators and things done, rarely fit so exactly, we can say they are almost made for each other.
The Oxford English Dictionary has the earliest quotes from Albany Fonblanque, England under Seven Administrations , 1837, "Sir Robert Peel is a fine round peg, inside a cornered hole, and Lord Lyndenurst is a rectangle square pegs, in fine round holes. "
Video Square peg in a round hole
English literature
The English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton publishes a metaphor in a 19th century book:
Maps Square peg in a round hole
Music
"A Square Peg in the Round Hole" is the title song of the 1959 British war comedy The Square Peg starring Norman Wisdom
Business management
This idiomatic phrase has proven to be quite durable in the 21st century. It is used in a variety of contemporary business situations; and illustrative examples include:
-
- "As they say, you can not insert a square peg in a round hole If your boss looks like a round hole and you are a square peg, you will not fit unless you form the edges."
-
- - Gini Graham Scott in the Surviving Guide to Working with Bad Bosses: Dealing with Troublemakers, Stupid People, Stabbers, and Other Managers from Hell (2005).
-
- "As they say, you can not insert a square peg in a round hole If your boss looks like a round hole and you are a square peg, you will not fit unless you form the edges."
Visual meaning
An idiomatic expression gives rise to visual images, and this develops independently, for example,
- "We intend to show that Israel needs a security process as well as a peace process.... To continue with the old diplomatic approach would be like hammering a square peg into a round hole." - Dore Gold
- "... reconnect with the title of a panel session, a square peg in a round hole: well, maybe, but sometimes you can force the peg and keep it fixed.We seem to be somewhere in between a feeling of optimism- hearts and open-minded skepticism about disease management capabilities in cost-for-service Medicare - Bruce Steinwald, Director of Economics and Payment Issues in the Health Division at the US General Accounting Office
Similar expression
Sejong the Great of Korea commented, in 1443, that using Chinese characters for Korean was "like trying to put a square grip into a round hole". He then developed the Hangul phonetic alphabet.
There is a Chinese idiom "????", or "????", (literally and each "square and round sphere" and "square mortise and round of thorns") originally derived from the line at Chu Verses (Chu ci) ?? ) , compiled in the Warring States period (ending 221 BC), in which Song Yu poet wrote: "???? Sima Qian and historian of Tang Dynasty ??? using the same phrase in their historical writing as well. It's still widely used today to mean two things that do not fit together because of different qualities, characters, or abilities.
The case of a rectangular square literal in a round hole
- Dutch settlers in northeastern North America sometimes actually hit square pegs into round holes when building in the 1800s.
- A common method for securing a railroad steel rail to a wooden bed mat is to move the square balls into a well-drilled round hole.
- During the Apollo 13 space mission, the explosion of the oxygen tank left an uninhabitable command module. Using the lunar module as a lifeboat, the crew was evacuated to the lunar module for the rest of the trip to the moon and back to Earth. Among the problems they have to solve is that carbon dioxide scrubbers are being used too quickly, designed for the requirements of two astronauts for 1 1/2 days instead of three for four days. There is a backup tube in the command module, but is cube-shaped and large, not cylindrical and small as in the lunar module. Ground Control put together a team with the goal of finding ways to use only the items available on the spacecraft to build something to make the control module workable. Using a plastic and cardboard sample bag from the cover of a log book as a funnel through which lithium hydroxide is pumped through the suit hose, into a fan and then through a sock, which acts as a filter. Everything is held together with masking tape.
See also
- Joseph Powell Williams
- List of idioms of English
- Procrustean
- Squares the circle
Note
References
- Bulwer-Lytton, Edward. (1873). Kenelm Chillingly, His Adventures and Opinions. London: Routledge. OCLC 220004649
- Scott, Gini Graham, (2005). Survival Guide to Working with Bad Bosses: Dealing with Troublemakers, Stupid People, Bower Sowers, and Other Managers from Hell. New York: AMACOM (American Management Association). ISBN: 978-0-8144-7298-9
- Wallace, Irving. (1957) The Square Pegs: Some Brave Americans Are Different. New York: Knopf. OCLCÃ, 754213
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments