Meaning & Analysis
Literally, the phrase refers to being carried along by the direction of the wind. In sailing, this can lead to a loss of control, while in falconry, it means to release a hawk to fend for itself, effectively abandoning it.
Insights
Decline and Ruin
The primary metaphorical meaning is to suffer a decline in fortune, reputation, or health. It signifies a state of decay or deterioration, moving towards financial ruin or social obscurity.
Loss of Agency
To 'go down the wind' implies a loss of control over one's own destiny, being helplessly pushed by circumstances rather than steering a chosen course.
Abandonment and Isolation
The phrase suggests being abandoned or cast off, particularly when one is failing. As one's fortunes decline, support from others evaporates, compounding the downward spiral.
Nautical and Falconry Origins
The proverb's power is rooted in the high-stakes worlds of sailing and falconry. For a sailor, going 'down the wind' could mean a loss of control or being driven off course. In falconry, releasing a hawk 'down the wind' was an act of final dismissal, abandoning it to fate. These origins lend the metaphor its weight of irreversible decline.
Literary Resonance
Shakespeare's use in 'Othello', where the jealous protagonist imagines casting off Desdemona like an untamed hawk 'down the wind', permanently enriches the proverb. It infuses the idea of decline with powerful undertones of betrayal, abandonment, and the brutal severing of bonds.
Psychological and Social Dynamics
The proverb captures the psychological experience of losing agency and becoming subject to external forces. It also reflects a harsh social truth, noted by L'Estrange in 1678, that people tend to abandon those in decline, accelerating their isolation and ruin.
Rhetorical Devices
Metaphor
The entire phrase is a powerful metaphor, using the physical force of wind to represent the abstract forces of fortune, social opinion, and economic hardship.
Imagery
The phrase evokes a strong visual and sensory image of being helplessly pushed or blown away, effectively conveying a sense of powerlessness and unstoppable decline.
Transcription
Quotations
For I goe downe the wind, and yet I puffe.
My purse grew so bare . . two or three yeares brought me so downe the winde that I could neuer look up more.
I feare the place you liue in is more costly then profitable; where, for one that goes vp the weather a number goe downe the winde.
Tis impossible that Saylers should be rich men, because they are ne'er so well pleased as when they go downe the wind fastest.
I perceive he goes down the wind in honour as well as every thing else, every day.
To fall to ruine; The English say, to go down the wind.
To decline mainly in ones Estate, and go down the wind, and spend more than one gets.
When a Man goes down the Wind, no body comes near him.
They are quite down the wind.
Shakespeare Citations
If I do prove her haggard . . I'ld whistle her off and let her down the wind To prey at fortune.
Cross References
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
Used under CC BY-NC 3.0.