Quick question: Does one stand at or on a threshold?
Example: Once again, he stood at/on the threshold of all his tomorrows.
Thanks, guys!
Example: Once again, he stood at/on the threshold of all his tomorrows.
Thanks, guys!
Grammar Question
- Thread starter evangaline
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It looks like either is acceptable: https://books.google.com/ngrams and enter "at the threshold","on the threshold" (with the quotes and comma) in the Search field.
"On the threshold" occurs earlier, but then "at the threshold" had a peak around 1915, but they've about reached parity now.
"On the threshold" occurs earlier, but then "at the threshold" had a peak around 1915, but they've about reached parity now.
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A Google books search* suggests that "stood on the threshold" is more common, but there are a lot of results for "stood at the threshold," too...I think either is fine.
*This is what I usually do when I am uncertain about something like this. I usually add "Harlequin" to the end of my search because I write romance, so I want to see what's done in Harlequin's books.
*This is what I usually do when I am uncertain about something like this. I usually add "Harlequin" to the end of my search because I write romance, so I want to see what's done in Harlequin's books.
Either, and they mean slightly different things. The threshold is the metal, wood, marble, or other strip of material that joins two flat surfaces, often different types of flooring or floor covering, or the switch from outside (dirt, grass, gravel, brick, cement, etc.) to inside. You can stand at it, and if it's appropriately sized, on it.
My house has a wooden thresholds about two inches wide separating carpeted areas from wood flooring, and metal strips smaller than that separating carpet and tile. But the bathrooms have marble thresholds about eight inches wide, easily stood upon. My previous house, built between 1910 and 1920, had its faults, but great big thresholds of twelve inches wasn't one of them. I bet as you go back in time to older buildings, they get even bigger.
Maryn, at the threshold of cleaning the bathroom
My house has a wooden thresholds about two inches wide separating carpeted areas from wood flooring, and metal strips smaller than that separating carpet and tile. But the bathrooms have marble thresholds about eight inches wide, easily stood upon. My previous house, built between 1910 and 1920, had its faults, but great big thresholds of twelve inches wasn't one of them. I bet as you go back in time to older buildings, they get even bigger.
Maryn, at the threshold of cleaning the bathroom
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When you're living in ancient times, you cover your floor with thresh. That's reeds or straw or some such that makes for a slightly warmer interior and hides the bones and apple cores and so forth you're throwing down there. Then every so often, you remove the old dirty soiled thresh and replace it with new.
If you want to keep your thresh in the house and not tracked outside, you hold it in place with a raised bit at the door, something that holds the thresh within: the threshold.
You can stand at it or, if you're good at balancing, on it.
If you want to keep your thresh in the house and not tracked outside, you hold it in place with a raised bit at the door, something that holds the thresh within: the threshold.
You can stand at it or, if you're good at balancing, on it.
Sorry, according to the good folks at Snopes http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.asp that's not the actual etymology (although it sounds plausible). "Thresh" was never a noun for straw, and the "hold," while obscure, apparently has nothing to do with "holding back the thresh." Etymology Online refers to "old theory that the second element is the Proto-Germanic instrumental suffix *-thlo and the original sense of threshold was a threshing area adjacent to the living area of a house." So, the threshold would be where you do the threshing, and what we call the threshold would be more useful in keeping the straw out of the house.
Our choices between grammatically correct phrases don't always end there. There are subtleties to consider even between two little words like "at" and "on". For instance, in much the same way that "at a crossroads" can be used to indicate a moment of decision, "at the threshold" can be used as a deep-breath moment before a commitment is made—will they, won't they (decision/indecision)—and is a point at which the MC could turn back from a particular course. "On the threshold" can convey a commitment or partial commitment to one course: "He stood on the threshold of a new life in the Azores."
It depends, of course, on your WIP and what you want your reader to register in that brief moment.
It depends, of course, on your WIP and what you want your reader to register in that brief moment.
Yes, this is what I'm after: "at the threshold" can be used as a deep-breath moment before a commitment is made—will they, won't they (decision/indecision)—and is a point at which the MC could turn back from a particular course.
Thank you!
Thank you!
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I would use "on the threshold" in metaphor, and "at the threshold" in literal description. I'm not sure why...
