Vinnie asks: What's "neither here nor there?"
My comments: First of all, you've done well to even notice a phrase
like this. Neither here nor there - simple and familiar words they are, so
familiar that we sometimes ignore them.
That's why people say familiarity breeds contempt - that's me at
my most penetrating, eh (lol)? Seriously though, in English language learning,
familiarity breeds, well, familiarity.
It's tempting to ask you to give an example, providing some context in
which you found this lovely phrase because then I could smugly reply with:
Well, can you guess?
But that's neither here nor there now. We cannot deal with what-ifs. We
must deal with what is - and what is is that you've raised a question
without giving examples.
I'll give examples instead.
This passage is from the opening chapter of The Odyssey by
Homer: "Now Neptune had gone off to the Ethiopians, who are at the
World's end, and lie in two halves, the one looking West and the other
East. He had gone there to accept a hecatomb of sheep and oxen, and was
enjoying himself at his festival; but the other gods met in the house of
Olympian Jove, and the sire of gods and men spoke first. At that moment he
was thinking of Aegisthus, who had been killed by Agamemnon's son Orestes;
so he said to the other gods:
"'See now, how men lay blame upon us gods for what is after all nothing
but their own folly. Look at Aegisthus; he must needs make love to
Agamemnon's wife unrighteously and then kill Agamemnon, though he knew it
would be the death of him; for I sent Mercury to warn him not to do either
of these things, inasmuch as Orestes would be sure to take his revenge
when he grew up and wanted to return home. Mercury told him this in all
good will but he would not listen, and now he has paid for everything in
full.'
"Then Minerva said, 'Father, son of Saturn, King of kings, it served
Aegisthus right, and so it would any one else who does as he did; but
Aegisthus is neither here nor there; it is for Ulysses that my heart
bleeds, when I think of his sufferings in that lonely sea-girt island, far
away, poor man, from all his friends.'…"
Leave all those Greek gods alone for the moment. Can you guess the
meaning of "neither here nor there", Vinnie?
From the Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, this passage: "Ay, ay,"
said the little man, "very good, very good, indeed; but you should have
suggested it to me. My dear sir, I'm quite certain you cannot be ignorant
of the extent of confidence which must be placed in professional men. If
any authority can be necessary on such a point, my dear sir, let me refer
you to the well-known case in Barnwell and…"
"Never mind George Barnwell," interrupted Sam, who had remained a
wondering listener during this short colloquy; "everybody knows what sort
of a case his was, though it's always been my opinion, mind you, that the
young woman deserved scragging a precious sight more than he did. However,
that's neither here nor there. You want me to accept of half a guinea.
Very well, I'm agreeable: I can't say no fairer than that, can I, sir?"
Have you figured it out, Vinnie? Or perhaps one more example will make
a difference.
In the news (old news, I shall say), this passage from an Economist
article titled Taxing the Internet back on March 23, 2001: "In some
respects, a further ban on new Internet taxes is neither here nor there,
because the real problem is the difficulty of collecting those old taxes
that should already apply to e-commerce."
Well, again, Vinnie, can you guess? Or have all these examples been in
vain, irrelevant, changing nothing and making no difference?
Anyways, this is one way to mastering idiomatic English without
consulting a dictionary. Meet it. See it in the eye. See through it. If
once doesn't do it, then do it twice, thrice. Eventually you'll be able to
get acquainted with it. You'll be able to make friends with it. You'll be
able to use it. You'll be able to use it well.
But remember, do it with respect. Don't allow familiarity to breed
disrespect.
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