What is Walter Raleigh’s panacea, a downsizing present or a cutting implement?

queproblema

Both. It's an axe. Also quite decapitatin. Quote: Raleigh took off his gown and doublet and asked the headsman to show him the axe. "This is sharp medicine...that will cure all my diseases." He placed his head on the block, refused a blindfold and gave the signal to strike. http://www.britannia.com/bios/raleigh/executio.html Dec 26 08, 7:09 PM

zbeckabee

The root of "axe" in the literal sense of "tool for chopping" is the Old English "aex," from a Germanic root with descendants in several other languages. The variant spelling "ax" was the more popular until the 19th century, but "axe" now seems more popular. Since few of us still chop our own firewood, the most common use of "axe" today is probably in the phrase "to get the axe" meaning "to be fired or dismissed," in allusion to the effects of the executioner's axe in pre-cubicle days. http://www.word-detective.com/041007C.html Dec 26 08, 8:27 PM

edmund80

Excellent, both of you! Sir Walter Raleigh's last words before being beheaded were supposedly something to the effect that the axe will "...cure all my diseases" as qp recounted although there is also a less fanciful version. "After he was allowed to see the axe that would behead him, he mused: "This is a sharp Medicine, but it is a Physician for all diseases and miseries". According to many biographers — Raleigh Trevelyan in his book Sir Walter Raleigh (2003) for instance — Sir Walter's final words (as he lay ready for the axe to fall) were: "Strike, man, strike!" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Raleigh#Death And of course, "getting the axe" is a present you never want to get, as zb pointed out. http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/get+the+axe Dec 26 08, 11:19 PM