TO GO OVER TO (or JOIN) THE MAJORITY (or GREAT MAJORITY), verb. phr. (old).—To die. For synonyms, see HOP THE TWIG. [The expression ἐς πλεόνων ἱκέσθαι is found in Crinagoras (Anthol. Palat. II, 42), and penetrare ad plures in Plautus (Trin., ii, 2, 14). A correspondent of the Illustrated London News (‘Echoes,’ Sept. 9, 1883) writes: ‘The phrase JOINING THE MAJORITY is a free translation of the sepulchral formula, Abierunt ad multos, used by the Roman legionaries in Britain’; but in all probability the English use of the expression comes from quot. 1721].
1721. YOUNG, Revenge, iv. 1. Life is the desert, life the solitude; Death JOINS US TO THE GREAT MAJORITY.
1891. Licensed Victuallers’ Mirror, 30 Jan., p. 1, col. 3. Henry Saffrey, the Paris Leviathan, has JOINED THE ever-increasing MAJORITY. ‘Lucky Saff’ was very popular in the French capital.
