Meaning
Said of the hardest or most decisive part of achieving something, usually in the pattern 'X is half the battle', meaning that once X is secured the rest follows comparatively easily. It offers an encouraging division of difficulty rather than any literal arithmetic of warfare. Informal and mildly encouraging; almost always tied to a named ingredient in the 'X is half the battle' frame. Regional use: General English (18th-century proverb, now elliptical).
Origin
It is the surviving half of an 18th-century proverb, 'the first blow is half the battle', earliest recorded in Oliver Goldsmith's comedy She Stoops to Conquer (1773), where a character boasts, 'The first blow is half the battle. I intend opening the campaign with the white and gold.' Later versions included 'a good beginning is half the battle', and during the 19th century the opening words were dropped, leaving the elliptical modern form, a truncation documented in Christine Ammer's Dictionary of Cliches. The pattern remains productive today, as in 'knowing is half the battle'. It also echoes far older classical maxims of the 'well begun is half done' family, though no origin with a specific general or statesman is documented, and the Napoleon-style attributions sometimes mentioned attach to other sayings entirely.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- half the fight
- knowing is half the battle
- showing up is half the battle
- the first blow is half the battle
Usage Examples
- Getting the syllabus approved was half the battle; the lecturing came easily after that.
- She tells every new recruit that finding the building is half the battle on day one.
- With a good night's sleep, half the battle against the deadline is already won.