fall on one's sword
to fall on one’s sword
Fall on your sword
Meaning
Commit suicide or offer your resignation.
Origin
It's been some time since men routinely carried swords and the use of 'falling on one's sword' is now restricted to the figurative usage when someone takes personal responsibility for a group action. The expression was used widely following the resignation of Lord Peter Carrington, who resigned from his post as Foreign Secretary for the Thatcher government in 1982, following Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands. He was the last high-profile politician in the UK to take personal responsibility in such circumstances.
The actual practise of committing suicide by falling on one's sword dates back to ancient Rome. Plutarch records such a death in The Life of Brutus:
The notion was already current in English in the 16th century. It appears in The Miles Coverdale Bible, 1535, in an account of the death of Saul - Samuel 31:4-5:
The expression is the Anglicized equivalent of hara-kiri - the Japanese samurai custom of committing suicide by disembowelment with a sword rather than face the dishonour of surrender. The highly ritualised and formal hara-kiri suicide - literally 'belly cut', is no longer performed. It has been known about in the West since the mid 19th century and was referred to in 1856 in Harper's Magazine in the title of an article - Hari-kari of Japan. It that piece Harper's used, and possibly originated, the common misspelling 'hari-kari'.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/133350.html
Εκτός, λοιπόν, από τα κυριολεκτικά πέφτω πάνω στο σπαθί μου / πέφτω πάνω στο ίδιο μου το σπαθί, τι καλό έχουμε για τις μεταφορικές σημασίες;
αναλαμβάνω τις ευθύνες μου (εδώ σταμάτησα)
assume responsibility or blame on behalf of other people, especially by resigning from a position: he heroically fell on his sword, insisting that it was his decision
ODE
ODE
to fall on one’s sword
1. Used other than as an idiom: To commit suicide by allowing one’s body to drop onto the point of one’s sword.
2. (idiomatic, by extension) To resign from a job or other position of responsibility, especially when pressured to do so.
1992, Paul A. Witteman, "Roger's Painful Legacy," Time, 9 November: Stempel was laboring to undo the damage when GM's board forced him to fall on his sword after little more than two years on the job.
2009, Glen Owen & Brendan Carlin, "Even Darling thinks his Budget doesn't add up as relations with Brown hit all-time low", Daily Mail (UK), 26 April (retrieved 2 May 2009): "There is no sympathy for her. . .," one Minister said. "She may just fall on her sword, or Gordon might humiliate her with a demotion."
3. (idiomatic) Voluntarily to take the blame for a situation.
1987, Ed Magnuson, "The "Fall Guy" Fights Back," Time, 20 Jul.: The bemedaled Marine refused to fall on his sword and take full blame for the scandal.
1996, Chip R. Bell, Managers as mentors: building partnerships for learning, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, ISBN 1881052923, page 81: Humility does not require you to fall on your sword.
2006, L. Woellert and P. Burrows, "HP's Showdown: Hurd vs. Dunn," BusinessWeek, 28 Sep.: In written testimony given to Congress and made public the day before the hearing, Hurd falls on his sword, apologizing for HP's spying on its own directors and invading the privacy of journalists.
(Wiktionary)
2. (idiomatic, by extension) To resign from a job or other position of responsibility, especially when pressured to do so.
1992, Paul A. Witteman, "Roger's Painful Legacy," Time, 9 November: Stempel was laboring to undo the damage when GM's board forced him to fall on his sword after little more than two years on the job.
2009, Glen Owen & Brendan Carlin, "Even Darling thinks his Budget doesn't add up as relations with Brown hit all-time low", Daily Mail (UK), 26 April (retrieved 2 May 2009): "There is no sympathy for her. . .," one Minister said. "She may just fall on her sword, or Gordon might humiliate her with a demotion."
3. (idiomatic) Voluntarily to take the blame for a situation.
1987, Ed Magnuson, "The "Fall Guy" Fights Back," Time, 20 Jul.: The bemedaled Marine refused to fall on his sword and take full blame for the scandal.
1996, Chip R. Bell, Managers as mentors: building partnerships for learning, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, ISBN 1881052923, page 81: Humility does not require you to fall on your sword.
2006, L. Woellert and P. Burrows, "HP's Showdown: Hurd vs. Dunn," BusinessWeek, 28 Sep.: In written testimony given to Congress and made public the day before the hearing, Hurd falls on his sword, apologizing for HP's spying on its own directors and invading the privacy of journalists.
(Wiktionary)
Fall on your sword
Meaning
Commit suicide or offer your resignation.
Origin
It's been some time since men routinely carried swords and the use of 'falling on one's sword' is now restricted to the figurative usage when someone takes personal responsibility for a group action. The expression was used widely following the resignation of Lord Peter Carrington, who resigned from his post as Foreign Secretary for the Thatcher government in 1982, following Argentina's invasion of the Falkland Islands. He was the last high-profile politician in the UK to take personal responsibility in such circumstances.
The actual practise of committing suicide by falling on one's sword dates back to ancient Rome. Plutarch records such a death in The Life of Brutus:
Finally, he [Brutus] spoke to Volumnius himself in Greek, reminding him of their student life, and begged him to grasp his sword with him and help him drive home the blow. And when Volumnius refused, and the rest likewise ... grasping with both hands the hilt of his naked sword, he fell upon it and died.
The above account was published in English in 1918. The notion was already current in English in the 16th century. It appears in The Miles Coverdale Bible, 1535, in an account of the death of Saul - Samuel 31:4-5:
Then sayde Saul vnto his wapebearer: Drawe out thy swerde, and thrust it thorow me, that these vncircumcised come not and slaie me, and make a laughinge stocke of me. Neuertheles his wapenbearer wolde not, for he was sore afrayed. Then toke Saul ye swerde, and fell therin.
Now whan his wapenbearer sawe that Saul was deed, he fell also vpon his swerde, and dyed with him.
Shakespeare alludes to a similar scene, in the death of Mark Antony, in Julius Caesar, 1601, although he didn't use a version of the 'falling on one's sword' text. Now whan his wapenbearer sawe that Saul was deed, he fell also vpon his swerde, and dyed with him.
The expression is the Anglicized equivalent of hara-kiri - the Japanese samurai custom of committing suicide by disembowelment with a sword rather than face the dishonour of surrender. The highly ritualised and formal hara-kiri suicide - literally 'belly cut', is no longer performed. It has been known about in the West since the mid 19th century and was referred to in 1856 in Harper's Magazine in the title of an article - Hari-kari of Japan. It that piece Harper's used, and possibly originated, the common misspelling 'hari-kari'.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/133350.html
Εκτός, λοιπόν, από τα κυριολεκτικά πέφτω πάνω στο σπαθί μου / πέφτω πάνω στο ίδιο μου το σπαθί, τι καλό έχουμε για τις μεταφορικές σημασίες;
αναλαμβάνω τις ευθύνες μου (εδώ σταμάτησα)
