posted
What is the meaning of this phrase? It looks like a fixed idiom with a specific meaning, but googling it just brings up a ton of "Marching through Georgia", which is my source for wondering in the first place.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
'reckon with' means take into account / think about beforehand / preplan for with a secondary meaning of deal with / cope with / handle / dispose of . Both meanings being used in this case.
A host is an extremely large grouping of individuals united in purpose. With the connotation of ethical methods&goals, God's backing via the more well*known 'Heavenly Host': "a host of angels" battles "a horde of demons".
quote:Baltimore Md.: You know how they always play state songs at conventions -- "Sidewalks of New York," "California Here I Come" and so on? At the 1964 Republican convention, the Georgia delegation took the stage, and the band struck up "Marching Through Georgia," which is about General Sherman laying the state to waste!
Yes, listen to the lyrics of any song you think you want to play for any occasion.
Gene Weingarten: Nice:
"Sherman's dashing Yankee boys will never make the coast!" So the saucy rebels said and 'twas a handsome boast Had they not forgot, alas! to reckon with the Host While we were marching through Georgia.
So we made a thoroughfare for freedom and her train, Sixty miles of latitude, three hundred to the main; Treason fled before us, for resistance was in vain While we were marching through Georgia.
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"Reckon with the Host." This song is about sending the sons of Georgia to Hell at the hands of Avenging Angels of Death. Very nice.
posted
"So the saucy rebels said and 'twas a handsome boast Had they not forgot, alas! to reckon with the Host"
Since God always wins, if the rebels had thought about Who they were going to fight: 1st meaning) They wouldn't have begun the fight / they wouldn't have resisted the inevitable victory by the Host, ie UnionArmy. 2nd meaning) They didn't successfully resist the UnionArmy; proving that God had always been on the Union's side, and thus that Union victory had always been preordained.
Think about how many wars could have been avoided if before the combat had begun, everybody had instead decided to agree upon which side God favored.
posted
A host can certainly be an army; it's not necessarily one which is always victorious, and doesn't necessarily refer to the host of angels. Anyway, I'm quite aware of this ordinary literal meaning. But it seems to me that there is some other idiom here, perhaps no longer in use except in this particular instance. (In a similar way, from the same source, "bring the Jubilee" does not literally mean "cause the Pope to declare a year of plenary indulgence".) I am thinking that "reckon with the host" might have some meaning related to "consider the one paying for the meal" which is being used as a pun.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Hrm. I don't think so. In the few places I've seen it used, that connotation doesn't seem to work. That's not to say that it couldn't be used that way as a pun, though. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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