I read like a certified Maniac, and follow the news very closely. I'm also a language nerd who feels confident in his command of the English language. However, this morning, I came across a phrase that I had never heard of before. No big deal, really, since I can't expect myself to ever know every single English word and idiom, but this phrase came across my face today not once, but three times, in three separate sources on topics that were entirely unrelated to one another. Have you ever had that happen to you? Where you have seen a word or phrase for the first time ever and then all of a sudden it is absolutely everywhere you look and you wonder if maybe somehow you are the last person between the same shores to learn of it? Secondly, I wonder just how commonly this phrase is used, so here is an entirely unscientific poll. Yes or No: had you ever seen the phrase "writ large" before reading the title of this thread?
May I vote for both #1 and #3? Wiktionary attributes the phrase to Plato, and I perceive it as a cliche best used sparingly. I'm surprised any language nerd would not have seen it before. Phillip
