stand on the shoulders of giants

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English

Etymology

Extracted from dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants. Often attributed to Isaac Newton (see quotations), but in other forms already in use earlier.

Verb

stand on the shoulders of giants (third-person singular simple present stands on the shoulders of giants, present participle standing on the shoulders of giants, simple past and past participle stood on the shoulders of giants)

  1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To build on the discoveries of others before one.
    • 1675 February 5, Isaac Newton, “Newton to Hooke”, in H. W. Turnbull, editor, The Correspondence of Isaac Newton, Volume I: 1661–1675, Cambridge University Press, published 1959, page 416:
      If I have seen further it is by standing on ye shoulders of Giants.
    • 1987 January 27, Ronald Reagan, State of the Union Address‎:
      In this 200th anniversary year of our Constitution, you and I stand on the shoulders of giants—men whose words and deeds put wind in the sails of freedom.
    • 2002, Sam Williams, chapter 10, in Free as in Freedom, →ISBN:
      "In the western scientific tradition we stand on the shoulders of giants," says Young, echoing both Torvalds and Sir Isaac Newton before him.
    • 2007, C. M. C. Green, Roman Religion and the Cult of Diana at Aricia‎, page xv:
      It is useful, though, to remember the conclusion of the maxim: we stand on the shoulders of giants to see better and farther than they.

Derived terms

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