Democratic Sentinel, Volume 13, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 February 1889 — The Expression “Too Thin.” [ARTICLE]

The Expression “Too Thin.”

Thoug’i the phras? “tco thin,” as ordinarily used by schoollxiys and others, may now be styled vulgar, the words may be med in a perfectly orthodox manner. “Thin” is equivalent to “transparent,” easily seen through; and, as a metaphor, seems to involve the aid of a veil (such as the ancients call r«ntus tex ilia, or “woven wind"), which served to display as much as to conceal the person. It is in this sense evidently that Shakspeare used the words in “King Henry VIII.,” act v., scene 2, where the King says : You were ever rood at sudden commendation*, Bishop Winchester. But I come not To bear such flattery now ; an t in my presence They are too thin and' bare to hide offenses. That is, “Your commendations are too transparent to hide your offenses.” Another instance of the use of the words may be found in Smollett’s novel of “Peregrine Pickle,” published in 1751. When the hero suddenly informs his lady-love, Amelia, that he is going abroad, the tears gushed into her eyes, and she was at great pains to conceal the cause of her grief by observing that the tea was so scalding hot as to make her eyes water. “This pretext,” says Smollett, “was too thin to impose on her lover, or to deceive the observation of her friend Sophy." There is nothing vulgar in saying that a pretext is “too thin,” and this is what is meant by the modern elliptical phrase.