"At the length"
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According to John Burns, "Reporter Threatens to Name Names in Phone Hacking Scandal", NYT 9/30/2011:
A reporter who is among the 16 people arrested and then freed on bail in the phone hacking case that has shaken Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in Britain warned his former bosses on Friday that he planned to break his silence on the scandal in a civil court case. He said that he would reveal those who were responsible for the phone hacking.
The reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, 49, who was the chief reporter for the now-defunct tabloid The News of the World, gave the warning in a statement issued through his lawyers in connection with his wrongful-dismissal lawsuit against News International, the British newspaper arm of Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation. […]
“There is so much I could have said publicly to the detriment of News International but so far have chosen not to,” he said. “At the length, truth will out.”
It's obvious what Mr. Thurlbeck means by "at the length" — "eventually", or perhaps "in the end". But "at the length", with this meaning, is an idiom that I don't recall having encountered before. {Though I should remember its use in The Merchant of Venice — see the comment by Ian Preston.]
The British National Corpus has 14 hits for "at the length", but they are all things like:
A number of the firms express concern at the length of the proposed report.
Doctor Braby[…] boldly essayed a guess at the length of time it had actually been in the water.
Experienced angel breeders look at the length difference of the finnage
You may be surprised at the length and diversity of this list.
And similarly for the 17 hits in the COCA (contemporary American) corpus.
However, when we turn to the LION ("Literature Online") corpus, we find plenty of relevant hits from the 16th and early 17th centuries. Thus William Baldwin, "Christe to his Spouse", from The canticles of Salomon (1549):
Of all the gydes that Israel euer had,
In wyt, in welth, in peace, prince Salomon
The chyefest Kyng, was not a litle glad
Of a vineyard he had at Baalhamon.
Whiche vineyard though it pleased his desyer,
Yet at the length he let it furth to hyer
To kepers suche, who yerely euery one
Should for suche frute as they tooke thence away,
Of syluer good a thousand pieces paye.
Or Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa von Nettesheim, Of the Vanitie and vncertaintie of Artes and Sciences, Englished by Ia. San. Gent (1530), chapter 48, "Of Iuglinge":
I being also a yonge man wrote of Magicall matters three bookes in a sufficiet large volume, whiche I haue entituled of hidden Philosophie, in whiche bookes whatsoeuer was then done amisse thorough curious youth, now beinge more aduised I wil that it be recanted with this retractation, for I haue in times paste consumed very much time and substaunce in these vanities. At the length I gotte this profit thereby, that I knowe by what meanes I shoulde discourage and dissuade others from this destruction. For all they that presume to diuine and prophecie not in the truthe, not in the vertue of God, but in the elusion of deuils, according to the operation of wicked sprites, and exercisiug deceits of Idolatrie, and shewinge illusions and vayne visions, the whiche sodainely ceasinge, they auaunt that they can woorke miracles, by Magicall vanities, exorcismes, inchauntments, drinkes of loue Agogimes, and other diuelish, woorkes, al these with Iamnes and Mambres and Simon Magus shalbe condemned to the paynes of euerlastinge fire.
At the length" occurs three times in the King James Bible (1611) — twice in "The Translators to the Readers", first here:
Now the Church of Rome would seeme at the length to beare a motherly affection towards her children, and to allow them the Scriptures in their mother tongue: but indeed it is a gift, not deseruing to be called a gift, an vnprofitable gift: they must first get a License in writing before they may vse them, and to get that, they must approue themselues to their Confessor, that is, to be such as are, if not frozen in the dregs, yet sowred with the leauen of their superstition.
And then here:
Neither did wee thinke much to consult the Translators or Commentators, Chaldee, Hebrewe, Syrian, Greeke, or Latine, no nor the Spanish, French, Italian, or Dutch; neither did we disdaine to reuise that which we had done, and to bring backe to the anuill that which we had hammered: but hauing and vsing as great helpes as were needfull, and fearing no reproch for slownesse, nor coueting praise for expedition, wee haue at the length, through the good hand of the Lord vpon vs, brought the worke to that passe that you see.
And once in Proverbs 29:21
He that delicately bringeth vp his seruant from a child, shall haue him become his sonne at the length.
The OED gives several senses for the phrase "at length",of which this is the relevant one:
b. After a long time; at or in the end; in the long run. †Also at the length.
But the only example with the is the biblical one:
1611 Bible (A.V.) Prov. xxix. 21 He that delicately bringeth vp his seruant from a child, shall haue him become his sonne at the length.
So, in sum, "at the length" seems to be an idiom that was current in the English of four or five centuries ago, and has apparently survived in some regional variety or professional cant, from which it surfaced yesterday in Mr. Thurlbeck's statement.
Ian Preston said,
October 1, 2011 @ 6:30 pm
Isn't he quoting Shakespeare?
Merchant of Venice Act II Scene II
[(myl) No doubt! And I should have recognized this — or checked the context of "truth will out", which I did recognize as Shakespearean. Thanks for the catch.
My lapse of memory aside, the basic point stands: this is an idiom that was common 400 years ago, and (this quote aside) seems to have pretty much faded from the language.]
Kathryn said,
October 1, 2011 @ 9:07 pm
Tempting though it may be to credit Thurlbeck with a high level of literacy and an engaging sense of humor, I'm willing to bet this is actually an example of a quite common phenomenon. As a recent accretion to your audience I don't know to what extent you've discussed it before (although I'll bet you have done so at least once), but I think of it as the "pick your phrase and stick to it" problem. I think he has conflated "at length" with some other idiom–possibly "at the end"; having started to use one, he substituted the other midway. This is actually a bit like Lewis Carroll's explanation of portmanteau words in the introduction to "The Hunting of the Snark":
"Humpty-Dumpty's theory, of two meanings packed into one word like a portmanteau, seems to me the right explanation for all.
For instance, take the two words 'fuming' and 'furious.' Make up your mind that you will say both words, but leave it unsettled which you will say first. Now open your mouth and speak. If your thoughts incline ever so little towards 'fuming,' you will say 'fuming-furious;' if they turn, by even a hair's breadth, towards 'furious,' you will say 'furious-fuming;' but if you have the rarest of gifts, a perfectly balanced mind, you will say 'frumious.'
Supposing that, when Pistol uttered the well-known words—
'Under which king, Bezonian? Speak or die!'
Justice Shallow had felt certain that it was either William or Richard, but had not been able to settle which, so that he could not possibly say either name before the other, can it be doubted that, rather than die, he would have gasped out 'Rilchiam!'"
Nick Lamb said,
October 2, 2011 @ 3:22 am
The fact that myl forgot the context of "truth will out" reminds me of an exhibit at the (reconstructed) Globe that offers a list of familiar idiomatic English phrases and asks which are Shakespearean. It's a trick question of course, they all are.
Kathryn, although the NotW was not a very reputable publication its journalists were capable writers, it's unthinkable that one of them would write (for this is a written statement issued through lawyers, not something spoken off the cuff) word-for-word a relevant Shakespeare quote by accident.
Lake said,
October 2, 2011 @ 3:36 am
Quite witty of him to pick something from Measure for Measure, too.
Ian Preston said,
October 2, 2011 @ 5:13 am
Kathryn: Tempting though it may be to credit Thurlbeck with a high level of literacy …
As Nick suggests, it would be wrong to think a tabloid journalist would not be knowledgeable about literature. Neville Thurlbeck, for example, studied English and Theatre Studies at Lancaster University.
Kathryn said,
October 2, 2011 @ 8:29 am
Point taken.
J.W. Brewer said,
October 2, 2011 @ 3:16 pm
"Neville Thurlbeck" sounds like a fictitious character invented by an American comic novelist who was looking for a name so stereotypically British-sounding as to be unlikely to actually occur in nature.
Asher said,
October 2, 2011 @ 7:31 pm
Bear in mind that while Shakespeare uses "at the length", he puts it in the mouth of Gobbo, who often confuses idioms and makes linguistic "errors" as part of his "fool" gig.
Hugo said,
October 3, 2011 @ 9:22 am
As a side note, I'd like to point out that in Québec French, it is quite frequent, and accepted (much less in formal language though), to use the idiom "à la longue" (literally "at the length") in the way Thurlbeck did. Interesting, I think, considering that Québecois are known to have kept idioms, words, and meanings reminiscent of 16th century French.
Nicholas Waller said,
October 3, 2011 @ 11:55 am
Ian Preston quoted quite a bit of the text before "At the length, truth will out", and overall it seems like a coded message (on top of any explicit messages) to Rupert Murdoch about his son James, who is most in the firing-line: "Well, old man, I will tell you news of your son".
Thurlbeck is the relevant Neville here: The 'For Neville' email: two words that could bring down an empire: James Murdoch now stands accused of complicity in an attempted coverup of crimes within his company.