Engineering Origin of a Common Phrase?

Once upon a time past I submitted the first chapter of a novel to an American literary web site and was roundly criticized for my quite normal English spelling and grammar. I derive satisfaction however in imagining the confusion of our transatlantic cousins if they ever read about several places hereabouts:

Flitwick - pronounced - flitik

Cogenhoe - pronounced - kookner

My favourite though is the surname Featheringstonehaugh - pronounced - fanshor. Guaranteed to make johny foreigner go cross eyed.

Off the rails, as in crazy, unsound or madness?

Well if you think about it the most common thing people know of on rails is a train. A lot of trains in the victorian times often crashed because the train would de-rail, "come off the rails" as it were, leading to the moment of crashing. People of unsound mind could have no fear of death so would be described as crazy, so the association is clear.

You could extrapolate that further to describe how rails are commonly thought of as been laid ideally in straight lines(they obviously are not always but there is a limit to the curvature in real life), so someone could be described as receiving a form of "guidance" as it were, from these rails, when someone is off rails they have no guidance, no further path on which to go and are about to crash, alot of people would've been hurt or even fatally wounded from these accidents until the rules and practices of rail construction have all but regulated their unfortunate regularity away.

Possibly the phrase pre-dates trains. Tramways powered by gravity, men, horses and/or steam winches were very common in the UK before the steam locomotive enabled the railways.

Today's suggestions for an Engineering origin: blueprint and typecast.

Also, if we allow science fiction: I heard the groom say "Beam me up Scotty". after emitting a resounding bottom burp during his wedding. Of course being English no-one mentioned his indelicacy at the reception later.

Cheers,

Dave

Edit - can't spell for toffee!

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 03/06/2016 10:51:43

We've got some good ones around here: spelled Findochty, pronounced Finechty, and one of the Spey tributaries, the Avon, pronounced Aarn, for instance. I've heard that a lot of these places that are spelled one way and pronounced another, nation wide, are the fault of the original Ordnance Survey cartographers, who were good at mapping but poor on other research and probably didn't lower themselves to speaking to the locals.

Just to go back a step to W. Shakespeare of that ilk, and "fast and loose".

We all associate the phrase with the systems of large (and early) industrial factories, but no doubt in Will's time milling machinery both water and wind powered would have needed secondary power take-offs for lifting heavy sacks and sundry other gubbins.

So his use of the phrase might still be reflecting the same basic arrangement.

Eug

I wonder if the expression "fast and loose" has its origins in archery, the two words referring to opposite actions. If anyone on the archery line notices something potentailly dangerous, such as a member of the public straying onto the field they will yell "Fast!" and no-one will loose. Both words have been used in this context, I am assured, for centuries.