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About “Make both ends meet ”
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Victor_yyg  #161578  Tue, 22 Nov 05 08:07 PM

can anybody tell me what is the origin of the idiom : Make both ends meet ?

 
  
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My2sense  #161583  Tue, 22 Nov 05 08:13 PM
    Manage so that one's financial means are enough for one's needs, as in On that salary Enid had trouble making ends meet. This expression originated as make both ends meet, a translation from the French joindre les deux bouts (by John Clarke, 1639). The ends, it is assumed, allude to the sum total of income and expenditures. However, naval surgeon and novelist Tobias Smollett had it as “make the two ends of the year meet” (Roderick Random, 1748), thought to go back to the common practice of splicing rope ends together in order to cut shipboard expenses.http://www.answers.com/topic/make-ends-meet
  
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Victor_yyg  #161739  Wed, 23 Nov 05 09:23 AM
got it. thank you My2sense very much.
  
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