The terms long suit and strong suit are both used metaphorically to refer to a particular personal strengths. Both expressions arose from card playing. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Long Suit, Strong Suit”
Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Judson from Texas. Hey, Judson, welcome.
What can we do for you? Thank you. So I had a question. I was reading a novel recently by an author from Montreal, Canada, and she used the phrase long suit. And it was used in the same context as I would usually say strong suit. Like if I would say social media is my strong suit, like I’m good at social media.
And I was wondering what’s up with that? Is there a correct way? Or when did that kind of become two different things? It was the first time I’d heard someone say long suit.
And, Justin, what are you picturing? Are you picturing a suit or long johns? I don’t really know. I’ve never really thought of it as strong suit or long suit. When I think of strong suit, I think of like a hand of cards in poker. Like it’s my strong suit.
Yeah, that’s right. It’s like a suit of cards. That’s the key in both of these. And what was the context that she used it in? What was she talking about? Or does it not matter? It’s sort of the same context that I used mine in. It’s a crime thriller, so it was something along the lines of investigating is his long suit.
Long suit. Well, in a bunch of different card games, including Bridge and Whist, a long suit is when you hold four or more cards, it depends on the game, of the same suit. And you can do things like build hands or somehow get to success, whatever the success is in that particular game.
But there’s the figurative use as well, which just means your strong point or your thing that you’re good at or something that you have a lot of experience at. And strong suit is similar. Strong suit is when you have a lot of valuable cards that don’t necessarily have to be of the same suit, again, for bridge or whist or games like that.
And it also has a figurative use. It just means you’ve got all the skills or whatever you need in order to succeed at the task in front of you. And so they are interchangeable in a lot of different ways when they’re in the figurative use. And the literal use in games, they’re more specific.
So I’m wondering, is there like certain parts of the country that use one or the other? Or is it really just kind of spread out? No, long suit is rarer, though. So strong suit is far more common.
Okay. So that may have something to do with why long suit is the one that seems new or unusual to you, right? Yes.
Yeah. And what’s interesting about both of these expressions, though, is they are kind of waning. As games like bridge and whist grow less common and less part of the everyday language, those bridge terms and whist terms are kind of ensconced in the language, and we’ve lost our connection to them is something that you might expect to see at a family gathering.
So is there something in Words with Friends or some online game that would be analogous that’s going to replace it? A good draw. Good draw, yeah. A good sack of tiles. I don’t know.
Judson, how about that? That answers my question. Thank you so much.
Okay. Our pleasure. Thanks for calling. Thanks for calling. Take care. Bye. Bye-bye.
