Tom Geoghegan, “Who First Called It a ‘Fiscal Cliff’?” (BBC News Magazine, Nov. 14, 2012)
Long before the fiscal cliff came the “fiscal precipice”, says lexicographer Ben Zimmer, pointing to an editorial in the Chicago Tribune in 1893:
“The free silver shriekers are striving to tumble the United States over the same fiscal precipice.”
“The metaphor of the precipice is clearly an ancient one,” says Zimmer. “And the cliff metaphor works for the modern age because of the cliffhangers of Hollywood, while driving off the fiscal cliff brings up the image of Thelma and Louise.”
Read the rest here. (Related Word Routes column)