phrases and sayings

[Fernstruth]

the origin of the phrase - safe and sound

[fredpuli47]

The Oxford English Dictionary gives a clue. The adjective 'safe' , as we use it,is first found in Middle English, the English spoken from the Norman conquest to the mid- to late C15. 'Sound' meant 'safe, secure, free from danger'.It too is from Middle English but , interestingly, this particular meaning is recorded by the Dictionary as current only until the mid C16.People, seemingly, stopped using that adjective on its own, with this meaning, then.So it may be that the two adjectives used together date from no later than this period, while one of them has since stopped being current.We do preserve old words when they are in phrases; 'hale and hearty', 'goods and chattels', 'without let or hindrance','proof of the pudding' come to mind; and they survive long after they fell, individually, from current use.

[Quizmonster]

As regards the whole phrase 'safe and sound' itself, it first appeared in a long anonymous poem called Cursor Mundi which appeared in the year 1300.

[heathfield]

I find it strange when Fred says that the adjective 'sound' fell out of use in the 16th century, and isn't current. It's always been in common use amongst tradesmen, for example, wherever I've lived..
'The window-sill / boat's hull / brickwork / fixing / (or whatever) may appear to be rotten, but actually it's perfectly sound'.

[Quizmonster]

Fred was suggesting only that sound meaning safe died out, which it has. In the sense of free from damage/unimpaired etc it is, of course still with us and has been for almost a millennium, H.

[heathfield]

Oh, right, QM. But we do still use 'sound' to mean 'safe' in relation to finance, e.g. 'a sound investment'.

[Quizmonster]

Perhaps so, H, but let's imagine you and your wife have just been painstakingly rescued from a raging torrent and finally placed, exhausted, on the river-bank. I very much doubt that you would say, "At last we're sound, darling!" That, I imagine, is the form of sound = safe Fred was talking about.
A sound investment is not so much safe...is any investment?..as well-founded, trustworthy etc. There is always an element in investment of "as far as we know" or "up until now". But what the hey! I'll leave it at that.

[heathfield]

Yep, me too! ;-)