Heads or Tails #38

HEADS: ANY TOM, DICK OR HARRY

TRIVIA

The phrase "Tom, Dick and Harry" is a placeholder for multiple unspecified people; "Tom, Dick or Harry" plays the same role for one unspecified person. The phrase most commonly occurs as "every Tom, Dick and Harry", meaning everyone, and "any Tom, Dick or Harry", meaning anyone. The masculine names in these phrase do not in themselves imply exclusion of females, but use of either version when the context implies necessarily being female − for example, "Your mother could be any Tom Dick or Harry" − would normally be seen as careless or ironic.

In Medicine

English-speaking medical students use the phrase in memorizing the order of an artery, and a nerve, and the three tendons of the flexor retinaculum in the lower leg: the T,D,a,n, and H of Tom, Dick and Harry correspond to tibialis posterior, flexor digitorum longus. posterior tibial artery, tibial nerve and flexor hallucis longus.