Englishfrom the word go
Meaning: From the beginning.
Example: “The project was badly organized from the word go.”
Origin: "Go" here is the starting signal of a race — the word a starter shouts to send runners off the line — and "from the word go" simply means from that very first instant, before anything else has happened. Davy Crockett's 1834 Narrative already has the phrase in this exact figurative sense: "I was plaguy well pleased with her from the word go." "Go" itself is far older, tracing through Old English back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to release" or "be released" — fittingly, the same idea of being set loose that a race's starting word is meant to trigger. The newer variant "from the get-go" arose separately in Black English in the 1960s, a full century after this older version had already settled into the language.
More English idioms
- get a word in edgewise To insert a word or sentence into an otherwise one-sided conversation.
- get by To just barely manage, with money or with one's responsibilities.
- get down to brass tacks To get serious or practical about something.
- get off scot-free To escape the proper or expected punishment; to be acquitted of a crime.
- get one's act together To get control of oneself mentally or physically; to get organized.
- get someone's dander up To irritate or anger moderately.
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