I won't mention the name of the professor who used this phrase last week to mean "divide an item in half". Horrors. If anyone should know better, law scholars should. (And law journalists.)

The origin of "split the baby", as many people know, is the Old Testament story where two women came to King Solomon with a baby, each claiming to be its mother. Solomon proposed to split the baby. When one woman begged him not to and give the baby away instead, he knew she was the mother.

But if you know the story, you should be able to figure out that "split the baby" means the opposite of "divide an item in half". It refers to a split that cannot be made, a futile attempt to apportion an indivisible object.

06 Feb 07