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Fire Escape Partners
3465 25th Street, Suite 17
San Francisco, CA 94110 | (transitive verb)
[pree'-kahn-SURT] 
1. to arrange, agree on, or settle beforehand: "The defendants presented stories that were so tight and so perfectly coordinated, that their testimonies had to have been preconcerted."
Origin:
Exact origin unknown. In action:
"We cannot absolutely know that all these exact adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places and by different workmen,--Stephen, Franklin, Roger and James, for instance,--and when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few--not omitting even scaffolding--or, if a single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring such piece in--in such a case, we find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft drawn up before the first blow was struck."
Abraham Lincoln�(1809�1865).���Speech of Hon. Abraham Lincoln [At Springfield] (June 17, 1858).
"I think that as regards the system of signaling by fire, which is now of the greatest possible service in war but was formerly underdeveloped, it will be of use not to pass it over but to give it a proper discussion. It is evident to all that in every matter, and especially in warfare, the power of acting at the right time contributes very much to the success of enterprises, and fire signals are the most efficient of all the devices which aid us to do this. For they show what has recently occurred and what is still in the course of being done, and by means of them anyone who cares to do so even if he is at a distance of three, four, or even more days' journey can be informed. So that it is always surprising how help can be brought by means of fire messages when the situation requires it. Now in former times, as fire signals were simple beacons, they were for the most part of little use to those who used them. For the service should have been performed by signals previously determined upon, and as facts are indefinite, most of them defied communication by fire signals. To take the case I just mentioned, it was possible for those who had agreed on this to convey information that a fleet had arrived at Oreus, Peparethus, or Chalcis, but when it came to some of the citizens having changed sides or having been guilty of treachery or a massacre having taken place in the town, or anything of the kind, things that often happen, but cannot all be foreseen--and it is chiefly unexpected occurrences which require instant consideration and help--all such matters defied communication by fire signal. For it was quite impossible to have a preconcerted code for things which there was no means of foretelling."
Polybius (~203 B.C.-c.120 B.C.). Greek historian. The Histories.
On that note:
"Calloway's cablegram was handed to the managing editor at four o'clock in the afternoon. He read it three times; and then drew a pocket mirror from a pigeon-hole in his desk, and looked at his reflection carefully. Then he went over to the desk of Boyd, his assistant (he usually called Boyd when he wanted him), and laid the cablegram before him.
'It's from Calloway,' he said. 'See what you make of it.'
The message was dated at Wi-ju, and these were the words of it:
Foregone preconcerted rash witching goes muffled rumour mine dark silent unfortunate richmond existing great hotly brute select mooted parlous beggars ye angel incontrovertible.
Boyd read it twice.
'It's either a cipher or a sunstroke,' said he.
'Ever hear of anything like a code in the office -- a secret code?' asked the m. e., who had held his desk for only two years. Managing editors come and go.
'None except the vernacular that the lady specials write in,' said Boyd. 'Couldn't be an acrostic, could it?'
'I thought of that,' said the m. e., 'but the beginning letters contain only four vowels. It must be a code of some sort.'"
O Henry, pseud. of William Sydney Porter (1862�1910). American short-story writer. "Calloway's Code." | |
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