Rein #atozchallenge

A to Z Challenge 1 Minute
Image by JamesDeMers from Pixabay

I’d like use today’s entry to talk about a particular bugaboo I have.

"Free rein" is an expression that comes to us from the equestrian world and refers to the rider holding the reins loose so that the horse can move in any direction it would like to go.

This term has made it over to the non-equestrian world and refers to "unrestricted liberty of action or decision," according to Messrs. Merriam and Webster. For example, when a manager assigns a project to an employee and gives the employee free rein to complete it, it means the manager trusts the employee to get the job done and leaves the decisions about how it will be done and the method chosen up to the employee.

In contrast, "free reign" might appear to mean the same thing, but it gets the idiom all wrong. "Reign" is something associated with kings, queens, jacks, princes and princesses. They’re royalty and can thus reign to their heart’s content. They don’t have to get the approval of anyone to do so, because no one is going to pull the reins in on them. The only people who can draw the reins in them are higher ranking royalty, so a queen can put a stop to whatever a prince or princess is doing. HM Queen Elizabeth II has done that a few times in recent memory.

And let’s not even get into free rain…

Bottom line: "free rein" makes sense, "free reign" doesn’t. Use the former, not the latter.

Okay?

Published by John Holton

I'm a writer and blogger who writes and blogs about things that interest me.

Published

27 thoughts on “Rein #atozchallenge”

  1. Pingback: #atozchallenge 2020: Looking Back – The Sound of One Hand Typing

    1. Currently, I only have the one blog. I had been blogging on WordPress and “simulcasting” on Blogger using IFTTT, but Blogger was doing funny things to my posts being passed from WordPress, and I wasn’t getting anyone to read the Blogger side, so I decided it was more trouble than it was worth. Last Saturday on the Challenge blog, I talked about Janet Miles, who goes from Blogger to WordPress and who seems to have more luck than I did going the other way. She’s still got it going.

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  3. Pingback: The Easter 2020 Week That Was – The Sound of One Hand Typing

  5. I knew that. I watched a lot of Errol Flynn movies and Roy Rogers, Dale Evans & Gene Autry movies! Bah ha ha ha ha Have a good night my friend. Stay healthy! hugs

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    1. They used to teach kids the difference between rein and reign, as well as your vs. you’re, to vs. two vs. too, their vs. there vs. they’re etc. Not any more, I guess…

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