Afoaofaitnol Posted 14 years ago
Vocabulary
why "on"?
Why do we say "march on Washington" (1963) and not, I don't know, "in"? You can have sth like "time marches on" but "on Washington"?
Top answer
I think it's borrowed from military parlance. Armies march on cities before mounting an attack on them. Many of our military terms come from French.
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I think it's borrowed from military parlance. Armies march on cities before mounting an attack on them. Many of our military terms come from French. A French army marches "sur" a city, so perhaps that is where it comes from.
They wanted it to sound aggressive because they were protesting. The alternative would be "to", not "in".
They wanted it to sound aggressive because they were protesting. The alternative would be "to", not "in".
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