by and large
i have been searching this word for long time.

HMO Pinafore?
Dear Word Detective: I do medical transcription and all of a sudden our docs are using the phrase "by and large." I called the library and was told this phrase had a nautical origin. Could you elaborate? I know there's been a resurgence of the Village People but are the docs wishing they were "In the Navy" by reviving this phrase? -- Stacy Brown, via the internet.

"By and large" is a slightly tricky phrase to explain. In its current popular usage, "by and large" is vagueness personified, and is used to mean "more or less" or "generally speaking" or "on the whole." Obviously I'm not privy to exactly how your doctors use the phrase, but I imagine it crops up in sentences such as "By and large, we have found our patients pay their bills more promptly when we explain that if they don't we will keep their clothes and make them ride the bus home wearing that silly paper gown."

In its original nautical usage, however, "by and large" had a fairly precise meaning. One of the trickiest courses to sail is almost directly into the wind, a maneuver called "close hauling" because the sails are angled tight against the wind. Close hauling requires an experienced sailor at the helm because of the danger of being "taken aback," or having the sails blown back against the ship's masts, halting the ship's progress. Sailing close hauled into the wind is also called sailing "close and by," the "by" meaning "in the direction of" in this context.

If the sailor at the helm were not an experienced salt, the Captain might prudently forego sailing "close and by" and instead order a less demanding course of "by and large." This means to sail in the general direction of the wind, but not so close as to run the risk of being taken aback. "By and large" first appeared in naval terminology in 1669, but was so obviously a useful metaphor that landlubbers were using it to mean "in general" by about 1833.