Fall through
Falling through is an extraordinary failure . This use includes, among other things
- Failure to pass an exam or an entire grade at school,
- non-compliance with quality requirements by things (products),
- the rejection of an actor , a production or a play on stage, or even
- not being elected in an election .
The substantivized verb falling through (today especially in the theatrical language also: diarrhea ) comes in the described colloquial word meaning of fall through , for example, by falling through an opening . Since the 18th century, the word has been traceable as diarrhea , especially in student language . The origin of its meaning “ failing an exam”, which has been common since then, is given as a motif from medieval fiction literature : According to this, a girl should lower a basket with such a light base for her lover that it falls through the breaking opening in the floor when it winds up. This thesis is supported by the fact that falling through the basket was used synonymously for failing to pass the test as early as the 16th century .
From the 18th century it was also used synonymously for not being elected in an election (in the sense of: " failing the voters "). From the 19th century onwards, diarrhea (in this form) was used in the language of the theater for a failure on the stage, e.g. B. in the case of the complete rejection of a play, a production or an actor at theater premieres by the audience present.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b failing . ( Memento from January 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) wortschatz.uni-leipzig.de
- ↑ a b diarrhea. In: Digital dictionary of the German language . Retrieved June 20, 2012