I couldn't find this with a simple Google search, but if you think about it, the origin of the phrase "take the first stab" has to be rather violent.
Maybe a nice piece of art to go with somebody starting to write the initial draft of an academic paper would be a picture of a scientist quite literally taking an initial stab through a pile or papers or perhaps through a laptop.
(If anybody has a favored website for etymology and similar matters, please let me know. I was hoping my global search would turn up a good answer on one of those pages.)
And, by all means, somebody should take the first stab at answering my query.
I have nothing to back this up, but I think of the phrase as having a literary origin. Using pre-modern pens, one would begin writing a document by making an initial "stab" of the pen into the inkwell.
ReplyDeleteThe phrase is clearly old enough for this explanation to make sense. Whether it's true, I have no idea. I'd join you in poking around on Google, but I can't really afford the time and my Google-fu has always been rather weak anyway... :)
This is plausible, though it's not clear if it ultimately is correct.
ReplyDeleteLyndie Chiou contributed the following plot on Facebook: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=take%20a%20stab%2Ctake%20the%20first%20stab%2Cstab%20in%20the%20dark&year_start=1500&year_end=2018&corpus=15&smoothing=3&share&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ctake%20a%20stab%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Ctake%20the%20first%20stab%3B%2Cc0%3B.t1%3B%2Cstab%20in%20the%20dark%3B%2Cc0
Jonathan McDunn suggested that it comes from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.
I suspect there will be some further interesting ideas.