Films,
quotes,
twins,
vintage fashion,
politics,
accessories,
bicycles,
old fashioned anything,
and music.

26th January 2012

Post with 2 notes

METTLE

mettle \MET-l, noun:

1. Courage and fortitude.
2. Disposition or temperament.

Who is so ignorant as not to know that knights-errant are beyond all jurisdiction, their only law their swords, while their charter is their mettle and their will is their decrees? 
— Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
“—must do something to justify your existence,” Marlene was saying to Tim, “and now is the chance to show your mettle.”
— Muriel Spark, The Bachelors

Mettle was used interchangeably with the material metal until the early 1700s. Mettle continued to be used in the figurative sense of “stuff of which a person is made” even as the spellings diverged.

  1. fraternalfilms posted this