Idioms

Back to square one

You have been working hard on a problem and you think you might have a solution. However, it doesn't work. You sigh and say: 'It's back to square one.' In other words, you need to start all over again.

It is easy to imagine this phrase comes from a board game, such as Snakes and Ladders, where your progress can suddenly be brought to a halt and you slide down back to square one.

The idiom seemed to have been made popular by the British Broadcasting Corporation. Commentators describing a football match on radio tried to make it easier for listeners to follow by dividing the pitch into eight squares. After

half-time, the commentary would begin with the phrase: 'Well, it's back to square one.' The idiom, though, is a little more negative than this. It's usually because something has gone wrong and you have to go back to the beginning.

There are other idioms involving a square. If someone does not fit into a group (think of a very shy person in a noisy sports team), they are a square pin in a round hole. This comes from plugs and sockets. Square and round plugs are equally effective in the right place, but do not mix well. An attempt to handle a difficult situation involving a contradiction (participate in lots of extra-curricular activities and really concentrate on academic studies) is to try to square the circle, a problem that may puzzle many mathematicians.

A fly on the wall