What's the etymology of this phrase?

October 29, 2018 7:53 AM

In Hitchcock's 1955 movie "The Trouble with Harry," actor Edmund Gwenn comments on telling a lie by using the phrase (I think) "cutting the hem off truth's garment." My Googling produces no mention of this phrase, which makes me wonder, one, if I'm remembering it wrong; two, if I'm remembering it right, why nothing on the internet; and three, what's the etymology?
posted by Jackson to Writing & Language (10 answers total)

I have no idea if this is right or not, but what immediately sprung to my mind was the biblical story of David cutting the hem off Saul's garment, signifying that he was there right beside Saul, and could have killed him but didn't. It also is sort of a symbolic transfer of power between the two men; Saul the old king, and David who would take power and become king.
posted by backwards compatible at 8:01 AM on October 29, 2018 [6 favorites]

I think in this context it means telling only part of the truth, thus open to wrong interpretation. I can't find it in either Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, or in the online etymology dictionary.
I'll be watching this thread with interest.
posted by Enid Lareg at 8:09 AM on October 29, 2018

According to Subzin, the actual line (at least in English subtitles) reads: "Miss Gravely, without cutting the hem off truth's garment, I'm gonna hide him, cover him up, forget him."
posted by Mothlight at 8:12 AM on October 29, 2018

Per an online transcript, the full quote is

MISS GRAVELY: What do you plan to do with him, Captain?
CAPTAIN WILES: Miss Gravely, without cutting the hem off truth's garment, I'm gonna hide him, cover him up, forget him.

Given that fuller context, and since a hem involves something that is folded away and partially hidden, I'd take this to mean that the response is the entire full truth..sort of a "truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth." No cutting away the hidden parts.
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 8:12 AM on October 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Also, if you put the phrase in quotes and search Google, I get a result on Google Books for "Truth, Trust and Medicine", in which a paragraph uses the phrase to discuss the idea of not being intentionally deceptive, even when one is not lying.

The author there says that the phrase is used by the character to describe a "certain evasive reply", though I assume they mean that full reply in movie is non-evasive, since it is stated to be "without cutting..."
posted by Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug at 8:19 AM on October 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

The phrase signifies breaking a binding oath, source
Also, the bride price was often sewn into the hem of the garment,cutting the hem meant the marriage was dissolved. source.
Rooted in Torah, The Hem of the Garment.
posted by Ideefixe at 8:41 AM on October 29, 2018 [6 favorites]

A Google Books search for of truth's garment reveals several variations on the theme:

the hem of truth's garment
the plicatures of truth's garment
the lap of truth's garment

Previously on Mefi: Who was "Fuller"?"

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) lists the following quote under the lap entry:

If he cuts off but a lap of truth's garment, his heart smites him. --Fuller.

What's this author's full name, and can someone give me some links to information about him/her?

posted by zamboni at 8:47 AM on October 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Note that since the Renaissance Truth has been usually represented as a naked woman (see here or here) because she has nothing to hide.
posted by sukeban at 9:56 AM on October 29, 2018

Fwiw, I could only find one citation to the phrase "truth's garment" in the OED. It occurs in the entry for "plicature":

John Smith · Select discourses · 1st edition, 1660 (1 vol.) They unfold the Plicatures of Truth's garment, but they cannot behold the lovely face of it.

Not sure what, if anything, the capitalization of "Truth" means here.
posted by mhum at 11:03 AM on October 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I marked Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug as best answer because of it's spot-on hit of the quote itself and it's explanation, but thanks and admiration to others who demonstrated the always impressive MeFi internet search skills. The relative obscurity of the phrase does leave me wondering whether it was taken from the book by Jack Trevor Story or was penned by screenwriter John Michael Hayes. I can't wait to find the right time to drop this phrase into a conversation.
posted by Jackson at 12:22 PM on October 29, 2018