By Paula LaRocque
Dallas, TX –
The clock seems to run faster as we move toward year's end and the holidays. Our general sense of hurry is heightened by media reminders that we haven't much time left. We have only a month. Then a few weeks. Then a few days. And, suddenly, it's the eleventh hour. We might get in just under the wire if we make a last-ditch effort.
The "eleventh hour" is an ancient metaphor for the last minute. It comes from a biblical parable - that of a vineyard owner who hires workers at the beginning of a 12-hour day. He promises each a penny for the day's work. Throughout the day, even up to the eleventh hour, the owner hires more workers. And at the end of the day, he pays each a penny, whether the worker's day was short or long.
To Christians, that parable represents the gift of grace. But it also gives us one of our most familiar "time" expressions. We might hear, for example, that a convict condemned to death has received an eleventh-hour reprieve, meaning that his life was spared at the last minute.
"Under the wire" is another last-minute expression. It comes from the racetrack, where the wire is a metaphor for the finish line. The first horse to get under the wire wins the race.
"Last ditch" is also a common time expression. It refers to a battlefield's last line of defense. When we speak of a last-ditch effort, we mean that it's our final effort. This is another ancient expression, dating to the 1600s, when William of Orange said that rather than see his country's defeat, he would die alone in the last ditch.
I recently saw an ad for an item that had been marked down, quote, "in the St. Nick of time." That word play for the expression "nick of time" not only refers to the last minute, it also reflects how we once thought of time - as mechanical rather than as flowing.
The expression "nick of time" is at least three centuries old. Originally, it was simply "in the nick" or "in the notch." In those days, time was thought to move as a wheel or belt might move - with notches (or nicks) and cogs. Time turned in that same mechanical way - and with its precise notches, we too could act "in the very nick."
Today we tend to think of time as a river rather than as a machine - we "go with the flow."
Another recent ad said that an item had been marked down "just in time for Xmas." The letter "X" is an ancient symbol of Christ and the cross. But "Xmas" also suggests hurry - we're too rushed to write out the word. "Xmas" was once common but is seldom seen in print these days not only because wordsmiths frown on it as shoddy, but also because Christians see it as irreverent.
Our mad dash through life seems a modern phenomenon, but the great age of such expressions as "eleventh hour," "under the wire," "last-ditch," or "nick of time" suggests that hurry is nothing new.
In any case, here we are, approaching the end of 2005 - almost to the wire. Better run!
I'm Paula LaRocque.
Paula LaRocque is a former writing coach and editor for the Dallas Morning News.
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