Thanks to 
haggisthesecond. (See! I remembered!) -
I had hoped to be able to write up the origins of the phrase "to broaden one's horizons" but, disappointingly, my usual sources failed to even mention the phrase, let alone provide me with an explanation of where it came from. (OED, Brewer's, Bartlett's) The only context in which I'm used to hearing about multiple horizons is astronomy, but I can't think why an astronomer would require bigger horizons than the sky provides. What would "narrower horizons" be? The view out of a window, as opposed to being outdoors with no trees or hills?
Bartlett's at least had the phrase in a couple of permutations, the oldest of which was written by Baudelaire in the mid-nineteenth century:
haggisthesecond and I have concluded that, all other things being equal, shorter people have broader horizons than taller ones, since the higher up you are, the closer far things appear to be.
haggisthesecond. (See! I remembered!) -I had hoped to be able to write up the origins of the phrase "to broaden one's horizons" but, disappointingly, my usual sources failed to even mention the phrase, let alone provide me with an explanation of where it came from. (OED, Brewer's, Bartlett's) The only context in which I'm used to hearing about multiple horizons is astronomy, but I can't think why an astronomer would require bigger horizons than the sky provides. What would "narrower horizons" be? The view out of a window, as opposed to being outdoors with no trees or hills?
Bartlett's at least had the phrase in a couple of permutations, the oldest of which was written by Baudelaire in the mid-nineteenth century:
" To be just, that is to say, to justify its existence, criticism should be partial, passionate and political, that is to say, written from an exclusive point of view, but a point of view that opens up the widest horizons."
haggisthesecond and I have concluded that, all other things being equal, shorter people have broader horizons than taller ones, since the higher up you are, the closer far things appear to be.
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I was under the impression that the Compact OED was the full one, just photoreduced to an astonishingly-small point size. The one I've got is the second (1991) edition, which was fifty quid (reduced from about £230) in an OUP sale about a year ago. I haven't got any of the supplements, though.
The Shorter OED is, as far as I know, a two-volume edition and presumably contains about a tenth of the text contained in the full edition. But that's for wimps :)
nicholas
Gosh - that's pretty serious reference. Although presumably for maximum points you'd have to consult the copy in the Bodleian Library :)
I only wish I had one of my very own...
I got mine in a sale a year or so ago, for the bargain price of £50 (plus postage) but a quick perusal of the OED site seems to indicate that it's back to its full price of £275, which is rather beyond my means. Probably worth checking occasionally to see if they put it on special offer again, though.
It's the only book I own which came with a magnifying glass and its own (72-page) `Users Guide', though...
nicholas
If I make it to school this afternoon I might try more reference sources there.
nicholas
I wonder if any other etymological dictionaries have already done the groundwork of tracking down early versions of the phrase. It seems like the sort of phrase that should have been around a few centuries already.