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Chris -- 2018-04-11
“Rail against” is an idiomatic way of saying “complain vehemently about”. And if this is done in a collective fashion, such a group may rally against the same. Clearly, either construction is valid in its own right, but one has to wonder whether one construction might inspire the other; For instance, if the words “railed against” were used in a news report, I wonder how many people would use the words “rallied against” when asked to summarize the report.
Last edited by jorkel (2011-01-31 16:50:09)
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You make a good point, Joe. Unfortunately, I can’t think of a way to google some phrase that will allow us to get info about whether or how often people confuse these two words. This issue may have to stay hypothetical.
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Perspicuous connection all the same, Joe. A bit of furtling in the usual sources shows that are two phylogenetically distinct verbs rally that are quite different in meaning. The common one means essentially the same as its root, “ally”. The rarer one means “tease, razz, rag on, ride”; this one comes from the same rootstock, Fr. railler, as does rail against.
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