Englishfair and square
Meaning: Honest(ly).
Example: “We won the game fair and square.”
Origin: A doublet — two words meaning much the same thing, paired for emphasis and locked together by rhyme, in the pattern English also uses for "null and void" and "cease and desist." The real work is done by an older sense of "square": from the 1500s, square dealing was true, straight, honest dealing, the metaphor taken from the carpenter's square, which proves a right angle and shows up anything out of true. Francis Bacon used the pairing in print in 1604, and the rhyme almost certainly helped fix it, since the phrase is easier to say and to remember than either word standing alone. That older sense of "square" now survives almost entirely inside this expression and a few close relatives like "square deal" and "on the square."
More English idioms
- fall on deaf ears To be heard but ignored, or to be heard but to have no effect.
- feather one's nest To build up one's wealth, often quietly or dishonestly.
- far cry from something Much less than what was expected or anticipated.
- feel something in one's bones To sense something without being able to see, hear or feel it; to have a premonition.
- feel the pinch To have less money than one used to have, and less than one feels is necessary.
- feather in one's cap An exceptional achievement.
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