The phrase “to toe the mark” means: To conform with the rules or to standards of discipline; to fulfil one’s obligations; to come up to scratch.
Literally, this used to be a term in footracing, now replaced by the command “Take your marks.”
An order, that is, to all entrants in a race to place the forward foot on the designated starting line. The expression does not appear to be more than about a hundred and fifty years old and could have been of American origin.
At least the earliest use thus far found is in James K. Paulding’s The Diverting History of John Bull and Brother Jonathan (New York, 1813).
Related Posts
-
Why Did Samuel Clemens Call Himself Mark Twain and What Does the Name Mark Twain Mean?
One big reason why Samuel Clemens called himself Mark Twain is that Clemens once wanted nothing more in life than to be a riverboat captain. Having someone measuring and calling out depth in…
-
What Does the Expression “Toe the Line” Mean and Where Did the Phrase Come From?
"Toe the line" is the same as "toe the mark" and means "follow the rules or pay the consequences." In many sports, such as foot racing, the athletes were required to stand with…
-
What does the phrase “beside the mark” mean and Where does it come from?
The phrase "beside the mark" is very old. In fact, it is so old that, in the original Greek, it had passed from a proverbial phrase into a single word which expressed its…
-
Where does the term Exclamation Point come from and What does Exclamation Mark mean?
It is the American practice to add point or mark; the British are content with "exclamation," or occasionally with the older terms, ecphonesis or epiphonema. The mark itself(!), however, came into English use…
-
Where Did the Term “Mark” Come From For a Gullible Person and What Does the Word Mean?
A "mark" is someone who can easily be taken advantage of and came to us from midway carnival operators (or "carries") who run games of chance. The word midway was first used to…
-
How Does the Mark-Recapture Method Estimate a Wildlife Population?
Researchers set traps to capture a population sampling in a given area. The captured animals are "marked" (or tagged) and then released. After a certain amount of time the traps are set again.…
