Autobiography breaking the ice meaning

Plutarch Quote

Formalities be damned. Cry 'Havoc!', let slip the jokes and roar. Tear through the barriers of social awkwardness with the small talk of triviality. Or, to use more eloquent brevity, break the ice.

The long history of the idiom 'break the ice' was first recorded in Roman times by the Greek writer Plutarch.

His epic biography Parallel Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romanes was written at the dawn of the 2nd Century AD. In 1579 Sir Thomas North translated Plutarch's book which revealed the line; .

Autobiography breaking the ice meaning

The allusion adumbrated an accord of doing business.

The Dutch philosopher Erasmus cited in his 1528 book Collectanea Adagiorum an earlier European recording of the phrase whom he attributed to the Italian Renaissance writer Francesco Filelfo (1398-1481) who used the Latin term meaning break the ice.

In 1590, the term 'Break the ice' was written into the William Shakespeare play The Taming Of The Shrew.

The scripted line was; . It was spoken by th