Great descend
English translation: Great = important people / descend = come down to be seen by the people
| 18:30 Apr 15, 2014 |
| English language (monolingual) [PRO] Art/Literary - Poetry & Literature | |||||
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|  Selected response from: Tony M France Local time: 18:57 | ||||
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| SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED | ||||
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| 5 +8 | Great = important people / descend = come down to be seen by the people |
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| 3 +4 | when important people visit places below their station |
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| 4 | when VIPs visit (unexpectedly) |
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Answers
3 mins confidence: 
| great descend when VIPs visit (unexpectedly) Explanation: The Great and Good is a common phrase. |
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7 mins confidence: peer agreement (net): +8
peer agreement (net): +8| when the Great descend Great = important people / descend = come down to be seen by the people Explanation: The meaning is obvious, but the explanation rather trickier! 'the Great' means important people, VIPs — these might be First Sea Lords, Royalty, the Viceroy of India... and so on, down of course to local dignitaries like the Mayor of the town. The key point is that these are people who (at least in their own eyes) need to be treated with special dignity and decorum (we have an expression in EN "the Great and the Good", which conjures up similar images of people who consider themselves important). As for 'descend' it is an unusual word to choose, almost certainly a deliberate stylistic device to infer that these 'great' people have deigned to come down from their lofty places (and cf. '...descended from Heaven...') to allow themselves to be seen by the hoi-polloi, the ordianry folk. Cf. also the word 'condescend', the similarity with which would not I think go unnoticed. |
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