| 词组 | bottom line |
| 释义 | bottom line Bottom line is a term of recent popularity which draws notice in Harper 1975, 1985, Bremner 1980, and Janis 1984. The first calls it slang and associates it with the Watergate hearings, the second says it is business jargon, the third says that as a term for the culmination or definitive part of anything it is much overworked. Bottom line was in the flood tide of its popularity from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s; it remains to be seen how long its popularity will last. Most of its uses are metaphorical. The basis for these metaphorical uses is the line at the bottom of a balance sheet where profit or loss is shown: • ... estimates that only $350,000 was brought down to the bottom line. That works out to a before-tax profit margin of 14 percent —Gwen Kinkead, Fortune, 3 Dec. 1979 This use was easily extended to the notion of profit and profitability: • ... is better known for its growth, its bottom line, and its product —Susan Brenner, Inc. Mag., March 1981 • Their constant concerns were the bottom line and projections of future profit-and-loss —Ray Walters, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 17 July 1983 And this use in turn, was easily extended beyond business: • The bottom line at Oklahoma showed 14 conference championships in 17 years —Bruce Newman, Sports Illustrated, 31 July 1978 Since profitability is obviously a primary concern in business, the term was spread to other instances of primary considerations or salient points. This is a very common use: • I have a tendency to say, "Get to the point, get to the bottom line." —Barbara Walters, quoted in TV Guide, 30 Dec. 1972 • "The bottom line is, if she was pregnant, like I heard, then it was me...." —Patrick Anderson, The President's Mistress, 1976 • ... what really mattered, in the final analysis, was that Carol had got clear. Getting clear was the bottom line —Cyra McFadden, The Serial, 1977 • The bottom line is this: You write in order to change the world, knowing perfectly well that you probably can't, but also knowing that literature is indispensable to the world —James Baldwin, quoted in N. Y. Times Book Rev., 23 Sept. 1979 • The bottom line on whether or not to do a limited edition is the appraisal of the market —William Goldstein, Publishers Weekly, 9 July 1982 Sometimes the main point is a summary or conclusion: • Its bottom line is that Turkey's crisis is "the most immediate threat to US interests" —John K. Cooley, Christian Science Monitor, 11 Mar. 1980 • The bottom line here is that in Lotusland the good guys and the bad guys get all mixed up in the scum —Mason Buck, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 29 Apr. 1984 • The bottom line is that software is an uncharted wilderness —Stephen T. McClellan, Datamation, 1 May 1984 These are the chief uses of the noun at present. It shows no particular sign of being confined to just these uses. In political contexts there is a use—perhaps growing—in which bottom line means something like "about as far as you can go": • But what is the territorial bottom line? How far can an Israeli government withdraw —Terence Smith, N.Y. Times, 13 July 1975 • But the Soviets' often-stated insistence that the Polish Communists must retain a "leading role" in the country is seen as nonnegotiable. "This," said one Western analyst, "seems the bottom line." —Christian Science Monitor, 14 Apr. 1981 There is also a hyphenated adjective. You will find it entered in responsible dictionaries. |
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