Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 08:29:40 -0500 From: Fred Shapiro Subject: Re: "level the playing field" On Tue, 13 Jan 1998, Gerald Cohen wrote: > I recently received a query about the expression "to level the playing > field." In what way is a playing field leveled? What is the origin of this It would seem that a playing field is leveled when its bumps, perhaps its slopes are smoothed out so no part is higher than any other part. The following citation illustrates the nonfigurative usage: 1978 _Business Week_ 1 May (Nexis) The new BL chairman did his first business deal at his upper-crust school in Grahamstown when he bid successfully for the job of leveling and grassing the school's playing fields. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fred R. Shapiro Coeditor (with Jane Garry) Associate Librarian for Public Services TRIAL AND ERROR: AN OXFORD and Lecturer in Legal Research ANTHOLOGY OF LEGAL STORIES Yale Law School Oxford University Press, 1998 e-mail: fred.shapiro[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]yale.edu ISBN 0-19-509547-2 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------