Throughout history, we have observed that human societies have been placed in front of the most diverse challenges. The process of dominating nature, creating machines and understanding other experiences were essential for the difficulties to be progressively overcome. In fact, from being a simple and fragile primate, man started to explore his environment on a scale never seen before.
Coming to the contemporary world, we see that many difficulties have been overcome and others are yet to come. All this visible difficulty shows us that the great civilizations have overcome the challenge of survival “by leaps and bounds”. For some, the use of this expression refers to a tortuous road, full of challenges and various pitfalls.
In fact, to understand the origin of this curious expression, we must go back to the Iberian Peninsula in medieval times. The word “stride” was used to refer to the leaps that a horse took along a covered path. On the other hand, the “ribbon” refers precisely to the obstacles and ditches that the horse would have to overcome in each of its jumps.
According to studies by folklorist Câmara Cascudo, the idiomatic use of these terms was pioneered by Alfonso Martinez de Toledo, a 15th century Spanish writer. In his work El Corbacho, where he writes a rich treatise on the tricks of foolish love, there is a short phrase in which the term "by leaps or bounds" appears with the sense of a task carried out with a lot effort.
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By Rainer Sousa
Graduated in History
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
SOUSA, Rainer Gonçalves. "By leaps and bounds"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/curiosidades/aos-trancos-barrancos.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
