“The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten.”
This is a quote by Benjamin Franklin, an American statesman, inventor, and scientist. It means that low price is usually associated with low quality, which will often leave you disappointed.
Why surround yourself with inferior things when you can live life by making high quality choices? If so, let’s use some adjectives associated with high, excellent and superior quality:
- Top drawer
- Top shelf
- Top-notch
Examples:
- A team of top-drawer architects and engineers was assembled for the high-profile project.
- The summer jazz festival featured many top-shelf performers.
- The Royal Hawaiian is a top-notch hotel on Waikiki Beach.
Although the origin of top notch is unknown, there are unofficial explanations for the other two terms. For top drawer, usually the more valuable or useful items are kept in the top drawer of a dresser or chest of drawers so it’s easier to access them.
Top shelf refers to where wine or liquor is kept in a bar or liquor store. The highest quality — and therefore most expensive — bottles are located literally on the top shelf as opposed to the cheaper liquor, which is kept within reach.
These aren’t the most exciting stories of word origins, but at least they offer some explanation for why they became synonymous with quality.
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