Tom, Dick and Harry: Difference between revisions
Masterhatch (talk | contribs) removed non-English section as it is irrelevant to this article. for examples in other languages, we have other language wikipedias |
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Why does Tom come first and Harry last? In English usage, where three words are given in a series, the shortest-sounding word normally comes first, and the longest-sounding word comes last.<ref>Thomas Mann, Joachim Neugroschel (editor). ''Death in Venice and other tales'', Penguin Classics. [http://books.google.com/books?id=q3mf1mhw2h4C&pg=PR9&dq=Tall,+Dark+and+Handsome+tom+dick+harry&hl=en&ei=_DIiTJ-NM6iFlAfYkb2wDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Tall%2C%20Dark%20and%20Handsome%20tom%20dick%20harry&f=false Page ix]</ref> Examples of this gradation include "tall, dark and handsome", "stop, look, and listen", "[[Hook, line and sinker]]", "[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly]]"; and so on. |
Why does Tom come first and Harry last? In English usage, where three words are given in a series, the shortest-sounding word normally comes first, and the longest-sounding word comes last.<ref>Thomas Mann, Joachim Neugroschel (editor). ''Death in Venice and other tales'', Penguin Classics. [http://books.google.com/books?id=q3mf1mhw2h4C&pg=PR9&dq=Tall,+Dark+and+Handsome+tom+dick+harry&hl=en&ei=_DIiTJ-NM6iFlAfYkb2wDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Tall%2C%20Dark%20and%20Handsome%20tom%20dick%20harry&f=false Page ix]</ref> Examples of this gradation include "tall, dark and handsome", "stop, look, and listen", "[[Hook, line and sinker]]", "[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly]]"; and so on. |
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==Similar phrases in other languages== |
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*''Пера, Жика и Мика (Pera, Žika i Mika)'' — in Serbian |
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*''Pierre, Paul ou Jacques'' — in French |
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*''Sulio i Pulio (Сульо и Пульо)'' — in Bulgarian |
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*''Hinz und Kunz'' — in German |
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*''Kreti und Pleti'' - in German |
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*''Hans und Franz'' — in German |
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*''Jan en Alleman - Jan, Piet & Klaas'' — in Dutch |
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*''Fulano, Zutano, Mengano y Perengano'' (usually the first three only) — in Spanish |
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*''Tizio, Caio e Sempronio'' — in Italian |
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*''Per, Pål og [[Askeladden]]'' — in Norwegian |
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*''Fulano, Beltrano e Sicrano'' — in Portuguese |
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*''Иванов, Петров, Сидоров'' (Ivanóv, Petróv, Sídorov), ''каждый встречный и поперечный'' (kázhdy vstréchny i poperéchny) — in Russian |
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*''Are, Oore, Shamsi Kooreh'' — in Persian |
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*''Andersson, Pettersson och Lundström'' — in Swedish |
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*فلان وعلان (fulaan wa-`allaan), كل من هبّ ودبّ (kull man habba wa-dabba) - in Arabic |
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*''Era Ghera, Nathu, Khera (ایراغیرہ نتھو خیرا)'' — in Urdu/Hindi |
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*''Phalana Dhingra — in Punjabi |
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*''Nodaai Bhodaai - in Assamese |
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*''Joži or Džony - in Slovak (slang) |
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*阿貓阿狗 ([[pinyin]]: ā māo ā gŏu) — in Chinese (lit. "cat and dog") |
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*張三李四 ([[pinyin]]: Zhāng sān Lǐ sì) — in Chinese (張 and 李 are common surnames, while 三 and 四 are the numbers three and four) |
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*猫も杓子も ([[Rōmaji]]: neko-mo shakushi-mo) "cats and ladles too" - in Japanese (neko-mo shakushi-mo) |
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* 개나 소나- in Korean (dogs or cows) |
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*''Ahmet, Mehmet'' - in Turkish |
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*''Urlia, Sandia eta Berendia'' - in Basque |
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== In medicine == |
== In medicine == |
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Revision as of 18:24, 1 August 2010
The phrase "Tom, Dick and Harry" is a placeholder for multiple unspecified people; "Tom, Dick or Harry" plays the same role for one unspecified person.[1][2] The phrase most commonly occurs as "every Tom, Dick and Harry", meaning everyone, and "any Tom, Dick or Harry", meaning anyone, although Brewer defines the term to specify "a set of nobodies; persons of no note".[3] The masculine names in these phrase do not in themselves imply exclusion of females, but use of either version when the context implies necessarily being female − for example, "Your mother could be any Tom, Dick or Harry" − would normally be seen as careless or ironic. The phrase may be used with or without the serial comma, as "Tom, Dick, and Harry" or "Tom, Dick and Harry".
The origin of the phrase is unknown although it is very old, the oldest known citation is from the 17th-century English theologian John Owen who used the words in 1657.[4][5] Owen told a governing body at Oxford University that "our critical situation and our common interests were discussed out of journals and newspapers by every Tom, Dick and Harry."[5][4] Pairs of common male names, particularly Jack and Tom, Dick and Tom, or Tom and Tib, were often used generically in Elizabethan times.[5] For example a variation of the phrase can be found in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 1 (1696): "I am sworn brother to a leash of Drawers, and can call them by their names, as Tom, Dicke, and Francis."[6][5]
Why does Tom come first and Harry last? In English usage, where three words are given in a series, the shortest-sounding word normally comes first, and the longest-sounding word comes last.[7] Examples of this gradation include "tall, dark and handsome", "stop, look, and listen", "Hook, line and sinker", "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly"; and so on.
In medicine
English-speaking medical students use the phrase in memorizing the order of an artery, and a nerve, and the three tendons of the flexor retinaculum in the lower leg: the T,D,a,n, and H of Tom, Dick and Harry correspond to tibialis posterior, flexor digitorum longus, posterior tibial artery, tibial nerve, and flexor hallucis longus.[8]
In popular culture
- Tom, Dick, and Harry are the names of three mountain peaks in the Cascade Range in Oregon, U.S.A.[citation needed]
- Tom, Dick, and Harry were the names given to three Galapagos Island tortoises brought back to England aboard the HMS Beagle by Charles Darwin, as documented in his book, The Voyage of the Beagle.
- Tom, Dick, and Harry are evoked by names of the characters in the play "The Verge" by Susan Glaspell.
- Tom, Dick and Harry - 1941 film
- In the musical Kiss Me, Kate there is a song "Tom, Dick or Harry".
- In The Great Escape, Allied POWs referred to three escape tunnels as Tom, Dick and Harry to avoid arousing the suspicions of their German captors.
- Tom, Dick and Sally — British comic strip.
- 3rd Rock from the Sun — the three alien characters posing as male humans took "Tom", "Dick" and "Harry" as given names (and the one posing as female took "Sally", coinciding with the comic strip).
- In the G.I. Joe universe, the real names of the original three Dreadnoks (Torch, Buzzer and Ripper) are Tom Wynken, Dick Blynken and Harry Nod.
- In the movie Death Becomes Her, the three male servants of the witch Lisle are called Dick, Tom and Harry.
- Tom, Dick, and Harry — 2006 Bollywood film.
- A television advertisement for Fernwood Fitness, a woman's only fitness club in Australia, had the by-line "No Toms, no Harrys and definitely no Dicks"[9]
- In the Futurama episode A Head in the Polls, when explaining why they could not allow Bender to move in at the Head Museum's Presidential head exhibition, the head of George H. W. Bush expresses that they cannot allow "every Tom, Dick and Harry to move in" before immediately apologizing to the heads of Jefferson, Nixon and Truman.
Notes and references
- ^ Shakespeare, William; Bevington, David (1998). Henry IV, Part 1. Oxford University Press. p. 178. ISBN 0192834215.
{{cite book}}: External link in|title= - ^ Partridge, Eric (2006). The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. Taylor & Francis. p. 1981. ISBN 041525938X.
{{cite book}}: External link in|title= - ^ Brewer, E. Cobham (1978). Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. Avenel Books. p. 1235. ISBN 0517259214.
- ^ a b Peter Toon, God’s Statesman, pg. 52.
- ^ a b c d "Tom, Dick, and Harry", the Gramaphobia Blog, February 18, 2007
- ^ Henry IV, Part 1, via Wikisource
- ^ Thomas Mann, Joachim Neugroschel (editor). Death in Venice and other tales, Penguin Classics. Page ix
- ^ "MedicalMnemonics". Medial malleolus: order of tendons, artery, nerve behind it. Retrieved 2008-01-17.
- ^ Letts, Stephen. "Women's gym pumps up profits". Inside Business. ABC. Retrieved 2008-10-09.