Sink or Swim

Etymology:

• Off course a person will sink if he does not know swimming and if he swims then he is successful. In old times there was a pretty strange kind of custom in which people especially women were thrown in the water who were suspected of being an evil witch. She was considered innocent if she got drowned in the water and if she floated she was guilty. In 1300, Geoffrey Chaucer used the expression “float or sink” in his works.