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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades
- close only counts in horseshoes and darts
Proverb[edit]
close only counts in horseshoes
- Coming close to achieving a goal is not good enough. Synonym: a miss is as good as a mile
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“Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades” is a saying that has been cited in print since at least 1965.
“Dancing” is often added to the expression. “‘But you know what they say,’ (Timmy—ed.) Hutton commented, ‘close only counts in dancing, horseshoes and hand grenade throwing’” was printed in the Spokane (WA) Daily Chronicle on June 9, 1971. “‘Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and ballroom dancing,’ he (former Oklahoma Governor Dewey Bartlett—ed.) said of his defeat” was printed in the The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK) on July 6, 1972. “Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and slow dancing” was printed in the book Fish Fights: A Hall of Fame Quest (2001) by Bob Rich.
Newspapers.com
9 June 1971, Spokane (WA) Daily Chronicle, “Indian Losses Not Classical” by Chuck Stewart, pg. 31, col. 8:
“But you know what they say,” (Timmy—ed.) Hutton commented, “close only counts in dancing, horseshoes and hand grenade throwing.”
Newspapers.com
16 March 1972, Ada (OK) Weekly News, “Bartlett Begins Senate Campaign” (AP), pg. 8, cols. 5-6:
“But,” he (former Oklahoma Governor Dewey Bartlett—ed.) added, “never let it be said that I have not learned from defeat. For one thing, I’ve learned that I don’t like it—closeness only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and ballroom dancing, but more important, I’ve
learned that a Republican in Oklahoma can take nothing for granted.”
Newspapers.com
6 July 1972, The Daily Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, OK), “Dewey Tries New Method In Campaign,” pg. 13, col. 4:
“Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and ballroom dancing,” he (former Oklahoma Governor Dewey Bartlett—ed.) said of his defeat.
Newspapers.com
8 August 1974, Hazleton (PA)
as for more young people dancing to the big band sounds now, Murray (McEachern—ed.) said “there’s an old saying that kids are finally catching on. Closeness only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades and old-fashioned dancing.”
Google Books
Fish Fights:
A Hall of Fame Quest
By Bob Rich
Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot Press
2001
Pg. 82:
I had thought the object was to have the bait land as close as possible to the fish,
but Brewer explained that “close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and slow dancing.”
Google Books
Quotes to Nirvana
By John Taylor Wood
Bloomington, IN: iUniverse
2010
Pg. 4:
Being close
only counts in three activities: horseshoes, hand grenades and ballroom dancing.
Twitter
Tim Ferguson
@tphybrid
Need a vote on Sun sermon title. A) So Close, Yet So Far B) Close Only Counts in Horseshoes, Hand Grenades & Dancing With The Stars.
1:56 PM · Jun 4, 2010·Twitterrific for iOS
Google Books
Stuntman!:
My Car-Crashing, Plane-Jumping, Bone-Breaking, Death-Defying Hollywood Life
By Hal Needham
New York, NY: Little, Brown
2011
Pg. ?:
Close only counts in horseshoes, hand
grenades, and dancing.
Twitter
Herk
@ShitHerkSays
Late student: “Oh, I was close!”
Herk: “Close only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and dancing.”
11:13 AM · Mar 22, 2012·Twitter for iPhone
Twitter
Kaia Alexander
@ThisisKaia
Replying to @RoyPeterClark
Close
only counts in horseshoes, hand grenades, and slow dancing
8:23 PM · Sep 11, 2019·Twitter for iPhone
Posted by Barry Popik
New York City • Music/Dance/Theatre/Film/Circus • Thursday, September 19, 2019 •
Permalink
The chronologically third and fourth appearances I've found of the formulaic phrase 'close only counts in [something]' (and variants) do not mention horseshoes, but rather quoits. So, after "close does not count only in horseshoes" from the Lincoln Daily News (Lincoln, Nebraska) 15 Aug 1914 (paywalled link), comes this second appearance of the phrase concept in 1916:
Yes, there is a game in which 'close' counts. It is horseshoes.
Bisbee Daily Review (Bisbee, Arizona), 16 Apr 1916 (paywalled).
The third appearance I found is in The Union Postal Clerk of March, 1917, and this time quoits feature instead of horseshoes:
Day Rosemer — getting close counts in quoits only.
Then comes this fourth with reference to quoits from Evening Report (Lebanon, Pennsylvania), 10 Jan 1921 (paywalled):
It was close, but close only counts in quoits, and baby, how big these two points and the last remaining minutes of the fray looked to the Red and Blue.
That fourth appearance is followed closely by the 3 Oct 1921 appearance of the phrase with reference to horseshoes, as compiled by Doyle, Mieder and Shapiro in The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs (2012).
The association of the phrase "close only counts" (variants) with quoits was suggestive, given the much longer history of quoits than horseshoes, but searches of the UK and US popular press, and Google Books, did not disgorge any attestations featuring quoits earlier than the 1914 and 1916 appearances featuring horseshoes.