Coming into your own——查字典英语网

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Reader question: What does this headline – The day Albert came into his own – mean?

My comments: It means the day Albert grows up, the day when he establishes himself amongst his peers, when he is recognized for what he is, for his talents and accomplishments and so forth.

Coming into one’s own is an idiom, and a very good idiom it is too in that it is simple. All English learners should make an effort to master such simple idioms like this, in preference to big words.

Anyways, coming into one’s own is originally a term describing a boy coming into age, age 21 for instance, when he is considered as an adult and hence allowed to make decisions concerning his inheritance. In this sense, coming into one’s own means coming into one’s property. Now he can be his own man and make his own decisions over his properties and moneys inherited.

Hence figuratively speaking a man who comes into his own is one who has established himself, gained the recognition he’s due, done his best and realized his potential. In other words, he’s lived up to expectations, his and others and proved his worth.

Here are media examples: 1. The modern American right, which is congenitally vulnerable to paranoia, gives into its own tendencies most readily when Democrats are in power and its own sense of dispossession is greatest. The John Birch Society thrived under Kennedy; talk-radio demagogues and the militia movement came into their own during the Clinton years; the prospect of a big Democratic win last year had a lot of conservative pundits and some Republican candidates describing Obama as a radical, a socialist, or worse. In some quarters the language has gotten more intemperate since he took office and started governing like the center-left politician that he’s always been. It isn’t just language that’s symptomatic of the paranoid style. It’s the certainty of a conspiratorial hand behind every decision; the evangelical fervor that sees every political dispute as an ultimate contest of good against evil. - Populism and Paranoia, The New Yorker, March 24, 2009.

2. Sir Winston Churchill was laid to rest in the Oxfordshire parish churchyard of Bladon, with only family members present at the private burial… His political career began as a Conservative MP for Oldham in 1900 - but he became disaffected and joined the Liberals in 1906. He was First Lord of the Admiralty during World War I - but shortly afterwards switched sides again, to rejoin the Conservatives in 1924. Much to his own surprise, he was made Chancellor of the Exchequer in Stanley Baldwin’s government. He came into his own during World War II. He became prime minister in May 1940. His ceaseless energy, unflinching determination to beat the enemy and an ability to make great speeches, inspired the entire nation and eventually helped win the war. - On this Day: January 24, 1965, BBC.co.uk.

3. As Kylie Minogue approaches her 40th birthday, it’s clear she’s feeling sexier than ever. The singer was dressed to thrill in a risqué sequinned top honouring the female form for the cover of Q magazine. Kylie has revealed she is looking forward to reaching the milestone: “I’m not scared of turning 40. I think it’s going to be quite liberating. “I’ve always heard that as a woman, 49 is when you really come into your own and I think it’s happening.” - Risqué business: Kylie as she's never been seen before, DailyMailOnline.co.uk, October 27, 2007.