Fair Play

Fair play is an established and agreed upon standard of decency and honesty where individuals in a competitive situation agree to abide by the set standard of decency and honesty.

The word fair comes from the Old English word faeger, meaning beautiful; the word play comes from the Old English word plega.  The traditional forms of games and other recreational activities in Medieval England were violent in nature.  Fair play came about as a way to create a more orderly approach to playing games and participating in other recreational activities.

The reason for this was so that betting — also a popular pastime — would have a level playing field for its participants.  By creating equal opportunities for participants of competitions, a secondary level of competition was built up for spectators.  When everyone knew the game and its rules, gambling became a worthwhile venture worth betting on.

In this way, fair play was a more ethical and more genteel way to wage war without firing shots and, for the most part, did away with the concept of winning at all costs … especially if it meant cheating in order to achieve this goal.

Shakespeare coined this phrase fair play and used it in several of his plays. The earliest usage of the phrase is found in his play The Tempest, Act V, Scene I, written in 1611 when Prospero comes across Ferdinand and Miranda playing chess.

MIRANDA:
Sweet lord, you play me false.
 
FERDINAND:
No, my dear’st love,
I would not for the world.
 
MIRANDA:
Yes, for a score of kingdoms you should wrangle,
And I would call it fair play.

Know The Ropes

It’s not surprising to learn that the language of an island nation with a rich maritime history has a number of idioms related to sailing.  The earliest recorded use of this phrase dates back to England and the 10th century.

New sailors signing on with a ship had to acquaint themselves with knot tying as well as handling the ropes for each individual sail on the ship.  The better a sailor knew to tie and handle the ropes, the more valuable he was to the captain.

 

In this way, it paid to ‘know the ropes’ and a smart man was the one who learned the ropes as quickly and as efficiently as possible. 

Drum Up Business

Before broadcast media and when only nobility and spiritual leaders could read, with the earliest record where the term was used being 1535.

Salesmen or musicians arriving in a new village or town would announce their presence by ringing a bell or beating a drum.  The reason for this was to gain the attention of those living in the village or town. 

Once a crowd had gathered around the salesman or musician, the stranger would go about his business selling merchandise or performing in exchange for a meal and a place to sleep the night.

Originally, the term was to “drum up trade” however, in the past century, the term has become to “drum up business.”