Being the ever diligent, agile blog that we are, I am adding a fresh new concept to The Nittany Line: Trivia Tuesday (doesn't alliteration rock?) While not a groundbreaking concept, it at least will let us pass the time and hopefully educate you the already intelligent reader. The questions will most likely be football based. I need your help on this though; I'm not asking myself questions I need responses. I'll ask the questions on Tuesday and have the answers the next day. Now don't go running out to Google and look the answer up, take your best shot and leave it in the comment section. The first person with the correct answer wins my praise and adulation (I'm not made of money people). Without further ado here is this week's question:Where did the terms 1st and 2nd string originate from?
Take your best shot and leave your answers in the comment section below.
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6 comments:
I would say it has something to do with the strings of an instrument like a violin.
Anonymous took my guess. Orchestras have different skill levels. The higher skilled players have more difficult parts, typically the melodies. The lesser skilled players have the harmony parts. The higher skilled players are called the first strings. Then it goes second and third string.
Just a guess and I could be wrong.
believe it originated on an old, old civil war ship. The better sailors worked the more difficult lines. The best sailor would man the first-string and so on.
YAAAAR! GO STATE-ME-HEARTIES!
I'm betting it has to do with polo, and the strings of ponies players own.
Orchestras have first 'chairs', not first strings.
It goes back to phrases used by archers when that was still a primary weapon as you needed backup strings because if one broke you are dead, which isn't a great thing.
I actually know this. It all started in the 30's. In high society Pearls were all the rage (look at any photos of 1920's flappers, they always got feather boas and pearls around their necks). Any way with the 30's came the poverty and rampant crime of the Great Depression. Rich folk were often being robbed during trips to the ballet or opera (think the Gotham Waynes). To be seen without one's pearls was out of the question, and it took far too long to requisition a set from Ceylon or Japan. The solution? Keep a second string of pearls at home incase something unspeakable happened to your best.
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