How to study the issue across and along?

Where did this unusual phrase come from? How can you know something "across and along"? At first glance, the phrase does sound rather strange, but you can still explain its meaning.

What do they mean by this?

Most often, the expression is used when a person says that he has learned some terrain in all intricacies and details. A vivid example of the use of this phrase is found in Alexander Pushkin: "I know a side," answered the road man, "thank God, it's round and round." This means that he knows the whole district well, travels all over his tarantas and is perfectly oriented here.

If you try to understand more deeply what it means "along and across," it's best to disassemble each word separately. So, the word "along" means "along the length, along the long side". In turn, "across" means "by width," or "on the short side." Of course, it's hard to imagine that a person studying the terrain will walk straight and straight over, then where did this phrase come from?

If you represent this phrase in the form of an image, you can see how old weavers wove canvases, laying longitudinal and transverse threads. The interlacing of these threads was very strong, they densely laid down to each other. Perhaps this was the birth of this phrase? How closely the filaments lay in the tissue, the terrain is so thoroughly studied.

In relation to people

Sometimes people are also told that they know them "across and along". Undoubtedly, they do not mean here the study of the anatomical structure of the human body, although doctors may well say so. In everyday life, most likely, this phrase is used as a symbol of the fact that we know the person very well and have known him for a long time. Here you can give an analogy with the saying "eat a pud of salt" with someone. That is, to be with a person for a long time and to study it well.

So close people, relatives or colleagues who have worked together for many years can tell about each other. As a rule, during long years of living together or working people get into a lot of situations that help them in the details to know the nature of a relative or a colleague, his personal qualities and to add a stable opinion about this person. Then we can safely say that "I know Ivan Ivanovich Ivanov across and along."

Other uses of the phrase

In the dictionaries there are other meanings of this word combination. For example, there is a short prayer read by a woman, seeing her husband on a long journey: "Save God the husband long and wide, and I without him, not beyond the threshold."

When the master gives the assignment to the workers, he can tell them to study the instruction crosswise and along-that is, very thoroughly and scrupulously. This emphasizes the importance of the work.

Sometimes used as an expression of a contradiction in something: "looking along, but living across." That is, it says one thing, but does another, does everything the other way around. Or when a person expresses disagreement with someone's opinion.

The same phrase is used when something is heavily distorted or you need to find something in the room when something is studied in detail or a sheet of paper is written tightly in different directions. As a rule, it happens, if there are no more papers, and the records need to be done.

We draw a conclusion

How to distinguish "along" and "across"? When it comes, for example, about folding a sheet of paper first along the length, and then along the width, or about folding a piece of cloth, then the sides are respectively distinguished by these parameters. In our case, the phrase does not apply to mechanical concepts, so we will not separate words. It is enough to understand what it means to "know, study, understand" the place, person, phenomenon or thing. Or comprehensively study some topic or problem.

In old dictionaries this phrase is written somewhat differently: "both along and across." However, the value still remains the same.

And constantly people are striving to ensure that this is what everyone knows - in all the details.