“Lay On, Macduff” Became “Lead On, Macduff!”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Donna Delugi. I’m calling from Lawton, Michigan. It’s a little village just southwest of Kalamazoo.

Welcome to the show. How can Martha and I help you?

When I was growing up, we did quite a bit as a family. I come from a family of eight children, and we do a lot of outings with my dad. And when we would stop and get started again, he would say, lead on, Macduff. And I just wonder, did he make that up? Or is there a Macduff? Or is it somebody from history or literature?

So the expression again is?

Lead on, Macduff.

Lead on, Macduff.

And would he say it in a joking way?

No, he would just say it like, let’s go.

Okay, let’s go.

Was it a sense of you go first and I’ll follow?

Or was it just let’s all go?

Let’s all go.

Yeah, you hear an expression like that and you think, oh, Macduff must have been a great soldier back in the day or something, right? A great military leader or something like that.

But actually, lead on Macduff, he wasn’t the only one who used it by any stretch of the imagination. It’s a fairly common expression.

But what’s really interesting about this phrase, Donna, is the fact that lead on Macduff is actually a misunderstanding or a misapprehension of a line from Shakespeare.

And the line from Shakespeare is actually lay on Macduff. And in this sense, lay on means to attack vigorously. And it comes from Macbeth.

And there was, you know, the great battle between Macbeth and his enemy Macduff. And what Macbeth says is, before my body I throw my warlike shield, lay on Macduff and damned be him that first cries hold enough.

So he’s saying, bring it on, you know, attack me, go ahead.

But by the early 1800s, people were using the phrase lead on Macduff, sort of misunderstanding, misremembering, mishearing that expression.

Wow, that sure changed the meaning, didn’t it?

Yeah.

Yeah, it really did. And it’s so common now that, I mean, plenty of people say it and have no sense of the connection with Shakespeare. It’s sort of its own phrase now.

I had never heard anyone else say it, and I was cross-country skiing with a friend a couple weeks ago, and we stopped. We had to take our skis off and put them back on. And when we were leaving, she said, lead on, McDuff. And I couldn’t believe it.

Well, I guess my dad didn’t make it up because she said it too.

Thank you, Donna.

Thanks for the call. Really appreciate it.

You’re welcome. It was fun.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Donna.

Bye-bye.

There’s something about those old family expressions. They linger.

And when you hear them in the mouths of other people, you’re like, wait a second. I thought that belonged to us.

Well, we can sort that out for you. 877-929-9673, or tell us on Twitter @wayword.