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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
I don’t entirely know what to make of this case.
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Quarter in the sense of ‘fourth part’ is historically related to quarter (of a city), and, apparently thence, to the idea of quartering or billetting troops, and thence to the nominal quarters meaning ‘(assigned) living space’. Apparently the phrase “give no quarter†is related there somewhere. Keeping good quarters with someone was maintaining good relationships with that person. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-giv1.htm provides some discussion, for instance.
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I think of quarter in that phrase as a rather different meaning, however, equivalent to “mercy†or something like that: giving no quarter does not mean failing to put your enemies up in lodgings somewhere, but being implacable, relentless, and so forth.
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Apparently this was historically sometimes “give no quartersâ€, with the plural form. E.g.
On March 20, 1778, Mawhood issued the following mandate to his British troops: “ Go – spare no one – put all to death – give no quarters. www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM2TTG
Anyway, when I hear someone say “give no quarters†I tend (eggcornishly) to get the idea of 25¢ pieces not being handed out. (If there was only a pay toilet for the prisoners, that might count as showing no mercy.)
There are plenty of hits:
GMA warns: Govt will give no quarters to unscrupulous traders,
Their assaults on the institutions of civil society respect no borders, give no quarters, recognize no innocents.
We give no quarters no mercy, no protection to any of them. It’s now us against them. Palin has to repent, and let others lead now.
You can take as well as give quarter(s):
they will fight under the black flag with cross bones and raw head, which indicates: “We give and take no quarters.â€
TNR’s Dale Peck has made quite a name for himself by writing take-no-quarters, slash-and-burn reviews of recent American fiction.
Hasn’t the country seen enough of take-no-quarters, my-way-or-the-highway style of governing from both parties? Hillary Clinton may bash
and someone who takes no quarter(s) is, I guess, fully committed, not going to quit and sue for mercy. If the fight is
a fierce, give-no-quarters-take-no-quarters encounter.
it is a fight to extinction of one side or the other.
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Anyway, I again (eggcornishly) get the picture of exchanging 25¢ pieces.
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You can also yield no quarter(s):
At the late anti-Mormon convention a complete set of candidates pledged to a man to receive no support from, and to yield no quarters to “Mormons,”
We may be ever so deficient in format and brilliant presentation of material, but in the matter of veracity and fact we yield no quarters.
and probably there are other relevant usages.
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Well there it is. I need to mull on it a while more, but would be glad to hear you all’s mullings too.
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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I’ve always assumed “give no quarter/s” came from a time when hostages would be taken for ransom and would indeed be lodged or quartered until the cash arrived; to “give no quarter” would simply be to take no prisoners, to fight to the death. The monetary quarter means little to me but given the then common ‘hang, draw and quarter’ method of execution, an eggcornish interpretation of not giving or taking quarters could even be slightly heartening.
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That I suppose would be taking no quarters rather than giving none? The patient of such an operation might be seen as yielding the quarters, but hardly as giving them.
Last edited by DavidTuggy (2008-12-03 15:26:25)
*If the human mind were simple enough for us to understand,
we would be too simple-minded to understand it* .
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A cool, fun set of finds. “Grant no quarter†and “take no prisoners†are so often used in tandem with each other that I think they become virtually synonymous/interchangeable in the minds of some speakers. In that kind of situation, mash-ups like “take no quarter(s)†feel more natural. Perhaps the plural on quarters is at least partially the result of parallelism between the two phrases. Or maybe we Yanks can’t imagine the point of taking just one low-value quarter. In any case, here are some examples of the two appearing in sequence with each other:
Pirates who roamed the seas flew a flag bearing the skull and crossbones to announce they would take no prisoners – they would grant no quarter.
http://www.noquarterlax.com/
Then came the Huns’ campaign in China and Wilhelm II’s parting advice to his soldiers: grant no quarter and take no prisoners.
http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/doc … ge_id=1361
In battle, he tells me, if you fly the black flag, you grant no quarter, take no prisoners.
http://www.pgmccullough.com/?p=277
*“I believe the Sutter County Taxpayers Association and others have made so many false and misleading statement as has (held?) such a grant no quarter and take no prisoners attitude that any information they present should be met with skepticism until it can be verified.†–Steve Marshall, administrative services manager, Sutter County Department of Human Resources.
http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:4ZK … =firefox-a
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