To you it probably means “tested and found to be reliable/trustworthy.” An example, a few days ago the topic of a car without hydraulic brakes made the rounds. Hydraulic brakes on passenger cars are “tried and true,” we trust them, and are skeptical of a vehicle without them. But that’s not where the phrase originally came from; it’s a centuries old woodworking term.
This is a try square. An OLD tool; examples survive from ancient Egypt. It’s such a basic tool that it’s often used as the symbol of the carpentry trade. “Try” in this case means “examine” rather than “attempt”, more like how a judge “tries” a case than a jedi trainee “tries” to lift an X-wing out of a swamp. A try square is used to examine a board. For squareness, and possibly also straightness and flatness. A board that passes this exam is said to be “true.”
“True” meaning straight, flat, parallel or even concentric is still in use to this day; “truing” a surface means to flatten it.
Side note about the brakes reference: that thread was frustrating because the headline readers were assuming the mechanical brakes were being deleted and relying solely on regenerative braking. They weren’t. It was replacing the hydraulic portion of the mechanical brakes with electronic sensors and actuators. While I naturally have concerns about electronic failure, it’s not like hydraulic brakes are immune to problems. I’ve had lines rust out and leak, pistons leak, pistons seize, lines clog, and slides seize. Very anecdotally, no failures of electric parking brakes.
Anyway, very neat etymology for both a term and tool I use. I never really considered “try” to be separate meanings between “attempt” and “test” because I took an “attempt” to be a “test” of ability.
Well straight off the dome I can think of another:
A wall that is straight up and down is said to be ‘plumb’. …like pipes? Kinda! The tool we use to measure verticality is called a plumb bob, a heavy weight with a point on one end and a string on the other. The Romans named the tool after the material they made it out of. In English we call it lead. In Latin they called it plumbum. Which is where pipes got their name; they made pipes out of lead. It’s why the Atomic symbol for lead is Pb.
Tried and True.
To you it probably means “tested and found to be reliable/trustworthy.” An example, a few days ago the topic of a car without hydraulic brakes made the rounds. Hydraulic brakes on passenger cars are “tried and true,” we trust them, and are skeptical of a vehicle without them. But that’s not where the phrase originally came from; it’s a centuries old woodworking term.
This is a try square. An OLD tool; examples survive from ancient Egypt. It’s such a basic tool that it’s often used as the symbol of the carpentry trade. “Try” in this case means “examine” rather than “attempt”, more like how a judge “tries” a case than a jedi trainee “tries” to lift an X-wing out of a swamp. A try square is used to examine a board. For squareness, and possibly also straightness and flatness. A board that passes this exam is said to be “true.”
“True” meaning straight, flat, parallel or even concentric is still in use to this day; “truing” a surface means to flatten it.
Side note about the brakes reference: that thread was frustrating because the headline readers were assuming the mechanical brakes were being deleted and relying solely on regenerative braking. They weren’t. It was replacing the hydraulic portion of the mechanical brakes with electronic sensors and actuators. While I naturally have concerns about electronic failure, it’s not like hydraulic brakes are immune to problems. I’ve had lines rust out and leak, pistons leak, pistons seize, lines clog, and slides seize. Very anecdotally, no failures of electric parking brakes.
Anyway, very neat etymology for both a term and tool I use. I never really considered “try” to be separate meanings between “attempt” and “test” because I took an “attempt” to be a “test” of ability.
Neat, TIL!
Seriously interesting. wood working is such an old trade im sure there are other words with roots on them
Well straight off the dome I can think of another:
A wall that is straight up and down is said to be ‘plumb’. …like pipes? Kinda! The tool we use to measure verticality is called a plumb bob, a heavy weight with a point on one end and a string on the other. The Romans named the tool after the material they made it out of. In English we call it lead. In Latin they called it plumbum. Which is where pipes got their name; they made pipes out of lead. It’s why the Atomic symbol for lead is Pb.