Among the many famous lines in Macbeth, by William Shakespeare, is the following:
Lady Macbeth: 'We fail! But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we'll not fail.'
I believe that the line is partially responsible for the coinage of sticking point, whose meaning today is quite different.
Examples of usage:
‘safety issues have been a sticking point in the negotiations’
‘This time the environment is shaping up as a key sticking point, due to concerns that some nations may use it as a protectionist measure.’
- ‘The movement of people is set to prove a major sticking point between the EU and the British government, which is seeking to curb immigration in the wake of the vote.’ [source]
Oxford Dictionary defines it
sticking point
An obstacle to progress towards an agreement or goal.
While Merriam-Webster claims that its first known use was in 1946, and defines it as
an item (as in negotiations) resulting or likely to result in an impasse
- What did William Shakespeare mean by sticking place?
Its meaning in Macbeth: be firm, unwavering, is radically different from today's sticking point.
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What, or where is this sticking place today?
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Is there any difference in meaning between sticking place and sticking point?
Best Answer
According to dictionary.com the expression sticking place corresponds to the more common sticking point:
The Free Dictionary cites screw (one's) courage to the sticking place as an idiomatic expression:
and Ngram shows a number of current usages of the idiomatic expression such as:
From Prolegomena:
According to WWW, though Skakespeare never said what he exactly meant by that expression, the 1911 OED edition accepts as probable that it may have something to do with “screwing up the chords of string instruments to their proper degree of tension”.