Stand On Someone’s Shoulders

To stand on someone’s shoulders means to physically place one’s feet on another person’s shoulders and stand up. However, this phrase also forms the basis of an ancient aphorism.

Meaning Of Idiom ‘Stand On Someone’s Shoulders’

To stand on someone’s shoulders means to benefit from the previous work of someone in one’s field; to be able to have success or make progress due to someone’s previous discoveries or work; to build on the work of others, without whom one would be unable to be successful in their field. 1Ayto, John. [http://amzn.to/2vdGvI7 Oxford Dictionary of English Idioms]. Oxford: Oxford U, 2010.,2stand on someone’s shoulders.” Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. 2015. Farlex, Inc 22 Oct. 2024 https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/stand+on+someone%27s+shoulders

Sentence Examples

“We’ve made tremendous progress, but I can’t take credit alone. I stand on the shoulders of those who have worked tirelessly before me.”

“I stand on the shoulders of the pioneers in my field, giants like Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein.”

“…to try and say, “oh, no, I did this all on my own. This is all me. I didn’t learn this from anybody. No. We’re all standing on the shoulders of giants.” — Dear Mr. Watterson (2014)

“Science is a conversation. We all stand on the shoulders of giants.” — Manhattan: A New Approach to Nuclear Cosmology (2014)

“We stand not on the shoulders of giants, but of tiny organisms, bacteria.” — History of the World in 2 Hours (2011)

“I think all of us who are practitioners in the arts of science fiction and fantasy movies now all feel that we’re standing on the shoulders of a giant. If not for Ray’s contribution to the collective dreamscape. We would not be who we are.” — Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan (2012)

Origin

This idiom is often attributed to Isaac Newton who said, “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

Newton wrote this in a letter to Robert Hooke in 1675. It is seen as a humble reference to the work of others that built the foundation of his own. However, it may also have been a subtle insult to Hooke, who was shorter than Newton and had a slight build. The two had an ongoing scientific feud.

Regardless, the phrase ‘standing on the shoulders of giants,’ and the concept behind it, had existed already for centuries and arose as early as the 12th century. The original concept was of ‘dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants’ or, in Latin, nani gigantum humeris insidentes. Isaac Newton was probably well aware of the association of the phrase with dwarfs.

An early example of the phrase is seen in 1123 in William of Conches’s Glosses on Priscian’s Institutiones grammaticae:

The ancients had only the books which they themselves wrote, but we have all their books and moreover all those which have been written from the beginning until our time.… Hence we are like a dwarf perched on the shoulders of a giant. The former sees further than the giant, not because of his own stature, but because of the stature of his bearer. Similarly, we [moderns] see more than the ancients, because our writings, modest as they are, are added to their great works.

According to John of Salisbury (1120-1180), the aphorism came from Bernard of Chartres:

Bernard of Chartres used to compare us to dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants. He pointed out that we see more and farther than our predecessors, not because we have keener vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft on their gigantic stature. 3Wikipedia contributors. “Standing on the shoulders of giants.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 14 Oct. 2024. Web. 22 Oct. 2024.