from post to pillar

== English == === Etymology === Possibly a reference to the rapid movement of the ball in real tennis. The term is believed to have given rise to the modern term from pillar to post. === Pronunciation === Hyphenation: from post to pil‧lar === Prepositional phrase === from post to pillar (idiomatic, archaic) Alternative form of from pillar to post, from one place, person, or thing to another, usually with a sense of frustration or harassment. c. 1420, formerly attributed to John Lydgate, Hrre [sic] Folowyth the Interpretacõn of the Names of Goddis and Goddesses of this Treatyse Folowynge as Poetes Wryte, [Westminster, i.e., London: Printed by Wynkyn de Worde, published 1498], OCLC 561380359; republished as Oscar Lovell Triggs, editor, The Assembly of Gods: or, The Accord of Reason and Sensuality in the Fear of Death by John Lydgate. Ed. from the Mss. with Introduction, Notes, Index of Persons and Places, and Glossary, by Oscar Lovell Triggs (Early English Text Society, Extra Series; 69), London: Published for the Early English Text Society by K. Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1896, OCLC 4125645, page 34, lines 1145–1148: Whyche dooñ he hym sent to Contrycion, / And fro thensforth to Satysfaccion. / Thus fro poost to pylour was he made to daunce, / And at the last he went forthe to Penaunce. 1562, John Heywood, Iohn Heywoodes Woorkes. A Dialogue Conteynyng the Number of the Effectuall Prouerbes in the Englishe Tounge, Compact in a Matter Concernynge Two Maner of Maryages. With One Hundred of Epigrammes: and Thrée Hundred of Epigrammes vpon Thrée Hundred Prouerbes: and a Fifth Hundred of Epigrams. Whervnto are Now Newly Added a Syxt Hundred of Epigrams by the Sayde Iohn Heywood, London: [Imprinted at London in Fléetestrete by Thomas Powell], OCLC 78701810; republished as John S. Farmer, editor, The Proverbs, Epigrams, and Miscellanies of John Heywood: Comprising A Dialogue of the Effectual Proverbs in the English Tongue Concerning Marriages—Five Hundred Epigrams—Three Hundred Epigrams on Three Hundred Proverbs—The Fifth Hundred Epigrams—A Sixth Hundred Epigrams—Miscellanies—Ballads—Note-book and Word-List (Early English Dramatists), London: Privately printed for subscribers by the Early English Drama Society, 18 Bury Street, Bloomsbury, W.C., 1906, OCLC 24204980, pages 55 and 218: {“A Dialogue Containing the Number of the Effectual Proverbs in the English Tongue. Part II. Chapter II.”, page 55} What, a post of physic, (said she)? Yea a post; / And from post to pillar, wife, I have been tossed / By that surfeit. And I feel a little fit / Even now, by former attempting of it. {“Three Hundred Epigrammes, upon Three Hundred Prouerbes, Invented and Made by John Heywood”, page 218} 251. "Of Post and Pillar." / Tossed from post to pillar: thou art a pillar strong; / And thou hast been a pillar, some say, too long. === References === G[eorge] L[atimer] Apperson (2006), “Pillar to post, From”, in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Proverbs, new edition, Ware, Herfordshire: Wordsworth Editions, →ISBN, page 457. === Anagrams === from pillar to post