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Reader question: In this sentence – These schools have a leg up to start with every year on recruiting – what does “leg up” mean? My comments: To have a leg up is to have an advantage. Supposing this was a debate on best universities and supposing “these schools” referred to Oxford, Harvard or, for that matter, Beida, an argument could be made that these schools are great not because they produce best graduates but because they enroll the best and brightest students to begin with. This is a simplistic view, of course, but the fact remains that these schools routinely get the best students. Hence the above statement: “These schools have a leg up to start with every year on recruiting.” “Leg up” originally means a helping hand and this phrase could well have been inspired by watching people helping another to mount a horse. The horse rider is often seen taking a step on a stool before climbing onto the horse’s back. When a stool is not available, however, the rider is sometimes seen to step on the locked hands of an assistant, or two – using their locked hands as a stool – to climb up. In doing that, he’s got an assistance which enables him to get a “leg up” – and obviously on can not mount a horse without getting a “leg up” first. Hence the expression “leg up”, meaning help or assistance. In other words, an upper hand. | 
