Keeps Honor Bright

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Yvonne calling from Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Well, what’s on your mind today?

So I grew up in Vermont and my mom, who was born in 1932 and grew up in Massachusetts, through her whole life, whenever anyone in her family wanted to communicate that what they were saying was the absolute, like, honest truth and you shouldn’t doubt what they’re saying, instead of saying, you know, cross my heart or, you know, I swear to God or whatever, they would say, honor bright.

And I always thought growing up that it was on a bright. And so that’s what I said my whole childhood. And I learned, which didn’t make any more sense, but I learned later that it was actually honor bright, like on my honor, the word honor bright.

And I asked my mom, like, where did you guys get that same? Because we used it a lot growing up. And she is not sure. She thinks they might have read it in like a comic or seen it in a commercial or something. But I listened to your show and I thought I would call in and see if you guys could help me out.

On or bright in a commercial. I’m thinking of laundry detergent or something.

Yeah, I have no idea.

That would be a good name for a product that cleaned clothes.

It would, wouldn’t it?

I know, right?

Yeah, it’s interesting because it’s usually a Brutacism. It’s usually more common in the UK than in the United States.

I mean, it’s not unheard of in North America, Canada, the U.S. And we’re more likely in the U.S. and Canada to say things like scouts honor or maybe even honest truth.

Or I swear on a stack of Bibles or things like I’ll cross my heart and hope to die. But honor bright is just somehow more British.

And of course, they would spell it H-O-N-O-U-R instead of H-O-N-O-R. And so I wonder if it’s just a remnant of someone having read it in a British text.

I mean, it is in Shakespeare, for example. You’ll find it in Troilus and Cressida in Acts 3. Perseverance, dear my lord, keeps honor bright. To have done is to hang quite out of fashion, like a rusty male in monumental mockery.

But that quote about perseverance keeps honor bright is a thing that you might run across in people who love to cite Shakespeare in their work.

Was anybody in your family in the Girl Scouts? Because I recall a Girl Scout, a Vesper that softly falls the light of day as our campfire fades away and it goes on and on. And then it says, have I kept my honor bright? Can I guiltless sleep tonight? You know, sort of putting a big obligation on you.

That’s amazing.

The bright in this, including in the verse that Martha just recited, is that the bright here isn’t about light versus dark. It’s about purity and incorruptibility. It’s about having unstained virtue.

So if you keep your honor bright, it means that you’ve done nothing that would stain the honor of, say, the organization that you belong to or your family name or your own name.

Yeah.

Well, that’s what we know, Yvonne. Thank you so much. That’s all very, very interesting. It’s nice to have things to listen to that are just, like, fun and informative and just make everybody knowing more and being better.

Oh, you can say it. You like listening to a couple of dorks.

Hey man, dorks make the world go around as far as I don’t we yeah we do all right be good take care of yourself thanks for thank you so much bye-bye take your honor bright i sure will bye bye bye 877-929-9673 is toll free in the united states and canada you can also email us words.