Re: Giving an inch, taking a mile...

[Stephanie Smilay <stephani@smart.net>]

At 12:07 AM 02/02/2000 +0100, Gunnar Hjalmarsson wrote:
>
>Hi all!
>
>I got a query from Nicole about a saying, and the only leads are:
>
>"It has something to do with giving a inch and people taking a mile."
>
>Is there possibly anyone who knows the wording and/or has some info
>about the source?
It was proverbial as far back as the early 1500's, when John Heywood
recorded the saying as "for when I gave you an inch, you took an ell."
(Barlett's Familiar Quotations.)  Nowadays it's most often heard as "Give
him an inch, and he'll take a mile.  Ells are no longer a customary form of
measurement anymore (they were used in measuring cloth, and were equal to
45 inches, according to the dictionary), and "mile" sounds close enough.
Stephanie