square deal

Example: “The mechanic gave us a square deal on the repairs.”

Origin: Rests on an older sense of "square" that has nearly vanished from ordinary speech: from the 1500s onward, something square was true, properly angled, and honestly made, the metaphor taken directly from the carpenter's and mason's square, the tool that proves a right angle and exposes any deviation from true. That sense gave English "on the square" for honest dealing, and Freemasonry drew on the same image, adopting the square as an emblem of moral rectitude. "Square deal" itself is American and nineteenth-century, and most likely began at the card table, where a square deal was one dealt fairly, with nothing palmed or stacked. Theodore Roosevelt then fixed it permanently in American English by naming his domestic program the Square Deal from about 1903, promising ordinary citizens honest treatment against concentrated wealth.