to stand on the shoulders of giants
2
5.6
- idiom
- Formal
:
apoyarse en los hombros de gigantes
- We all stand on the shoulders of giants, don't we?
And he said I was standing on the shoulders of giants.
- And he said I was standing on the shoulders of giants.
- It's been a male thing for centuries to say I stand on the shoulders of giants.
- Could I, I, you might be able to get quite far standing on the shoulders of giants.
Examples
-
It is a cliché, but we really are standing on the shoulders of giants.
Blog text (10) -
If we have gone so far in our understanding of symmetry in this century, it is in large part by standing on the shoulders of giants such as Eugene P. Wigner.
Academic text (1995) -
Here we stand, on the shoulders of giants.
-
Someone once said that we stand on the shoulders of giants before us.
Academic text (2010) -
But we have to remember we stand on the shoulders of giants.
Blog text (34) -
We know that we stand on the shoulders of giants.
Blog text (9) -
We should never forget the sacrifices of those who have gone before us... we stand on the shoulders of giants.
Blog text (34) -
As Isaac Newton put it: "If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."
Academic text (2015) -
By studying the works of great thinkers, we can stand on the shoulders of giants to create new ideas.
-
Innovations in technology allow us to stand on the shoulders of giants who laid the groundwork before us.
Synonyms
26
3.4
Use something as a base for further work
4
5.7
Make progress by using the ideas and work of earlier people
Use other people's ideas or work to move forward
How Much
- Formal
2
5.6
- Formal
4
5.7
179
3.4
121
2.9
Surface Forms
Morphology
stand + on + the + shoulders + of + giant
The phrase literalizes a spatial image (standing on giants' shoulders) to express making progress by using others' ideas, so the meaning is a metaphorical extension of the constituent words rather than straightforward composition. A B1 learner who knows the words could likely guess a sense like 'benefiting from others' support', but the precise idiomatic nuance and cultural provenance are not fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
The saying stand on the shoulders of giants comes from a famous line by Isaac Newton and gives a simple picture: imagine you are standing on the shoulders of huge giants so you can see farther. So it means 'to make progress by using the ideas or work of people who came before you'.