If it bleeds, it leads

I had always thought that the saying, "if it bleeds, it leads" was the brainchild of legendary US newsman, William Randolph Hearst. However, when I went looking for the source of the quote, I was unable to find conclusive proof of Hearst's 'ownership', and Wikiquote has nothing. For a phrase that famous, it would have been documented, so I think I can safely assume it was NOT Hearst's coinage. 

The phrase is embedded in newspaper or possibly TV news jargon — "the 'lead' is the first paragraph or so of a newspaper story, or the first story to be shown on the news show. Leads (sometimes spelled as “ledes” to clarify pronunciation) are carefully crafted to grab the reader’s or viewer’s attention and pull [them] into the story" (Scandling, 2018). Hendrickson notes that the phrase is "Recent" and that it is an "instruction for tabloid broadcasting and newspaper journalists, referring to the need for emphasizing bloody sensational stories in their coverage of the news, specifically leading off the first page or the program with such stories. Such coverage is, however, older than the tabloids themselves" (2008, p. 430). But is it?

It doesn't look older than tabloids. In having a scurry around the interweb, many attribute the saying to Pooley (1989) who mentions the phrase in passing: "even the best work can be hard to pick out of the dross. The thoughtful report is buried because sensational stories must launch the broadcast: If it bleeds, it leads" (p. 37).

However, I also found an anonymous writer on Answers.com who said that they had found the phrase in a trade magazine, "Broadcasting" from 1982, as follows:

"An article entitled 'Preparing for a Boston news war' describ[ing] the relaunch of channel 7 in Boston". The station "was being relaunched" and included "the following: 'Asked whether WNEV-TV would continue its predecessor's policy, described as "If it bleeds, it leads," [news director Bill] Applegate said...' " (Answers.Com, 2011).

The writer goes on to note that, following that first quote: 

the phrase appears in TV Guide in 1983, but after that there's nothing for 6 years. Then in 1989 New York magazine ran an article entitled 'Grins, Gore, and Videotape - The Trouble with Local TV News' by Eric Pooley. In a scathing indictment of local newscasts, Pooley writes that, 'The thoughtful report is buried because sensational stories must launch the broadcast: If it bleeds, it leads.' The phrase was reprinted (with credit to Pooley) in the Washington Post in October of '89 in an article called "Bodybag Journalism" by Eleanor Randolph. Within a few months it was popping up in letters and op-eds in papers all around the country (Answers.Com, 2011).

However, it is possible that the phrase was common earlier than 1982, as in 2016 Campbell et al. note the following:

By the mid-1970s, the public’s fascination with the Watergate scandal, combined with the improved quality of TV journalism, helped local news departments realize profits. In an effort to retain high ratings, stations began hiring consultants, who advised news directors to invest in national prepackaged formats, such as Action News or Eyewitness News. Traveling the country, viewers noticed similar theme music and opening graphic visuals from market to market. Consultants also suggested that stations lead their newscasts with crime blocks: a group of TV stories that recount the worst local criminal transgressions of the day. A cynical slogan soon developed in the industry: “If it bleeds, it leads.” This crime-block practice continues today at most local TV news stations (Campbell et al., 2016, p. 496).

Interesting. So let's assume Pooley until we find that elusive 1982 source. 

Sam

References:

Answers.Com (2012, December 30). Who coined the phrase if it bleeds it leads? [Anonymous]. https://www.answers.com/english-language-arts/Who_coined_the_phrase_if_it_bleeds_it_leads

Campbell, R., Martin, C. R., & Fabos, B. (2016). Media & Culture: Mass communication in a digital age (10th ed.). Bedford/St. Martin's.

Hendrickson, R. (2008). The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins: Definitions and origins of more than 15,000 words and expressions (4th ed.). Facts On File, Inc.

Pooley, E. (1989, October 9). Grins, Gore, and Videotape: The Trouble with Local TV News. The New York Magazine, 22(40), 36-44. https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=_OcCAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false

Scandling, M. (2018, February 27). If It Bleeds, It Leads. No Matter Whose Blood It Is. StandLeague. https://www.standleague.org/newsroom/blog/if-it-bleeds-it-leads-no-matter-whose-blood-it-is.html

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Even more catchphrases!

Already it is time for another lot of catchphrases.

Firstly, in the words of the old woman to the dodgy Knight from the The Wife of Bath's Tale (Lyrics Translate, 2026, citing Chaucer, 1400, l. 1000) "you can't get there from here". I love that colloquial translation!

Once upon a time nearly everyone smoked. And, because there was a culture of, if you were having a cigarette, you would offer one to those around you, an acceptable response was "I've just put one out thanks". In our family, we used that for everything: "Would you like a glass of wine?" "I've just put one out, thanks". Or "Would you like a shower?" "I've just put one out, thanks". Most people today, in an age of such low smoking numbers, would not get the context!

Then we have the 1990s "Thousands of tiny luminous spheres" from Natural Glow makeup sold by telemarketer extraordinaire, Suzanne Paul, in a smashing Wolverhampton accent (Knight, 2024). This became a national catchphrase: even The Bats used it as a 2000 album title. In our family, we would use the "thousands of tiny luminous spheres" to describe the merits of anything that disguised reality and turned a negative into a positive. 

Ah: who remembers Mrs Marsh, of the "Like liquid gets into this chalk" fame? The reply was "Ooo, it does get in!". This was an Australian toothpaste commercial, with fluoride delivered with a real Aussie twang and purple chalk (AustralianAds, 2010, 0:17). "Ooo, it does get in!" was used by us for everything.

Another Aussie pearl was Madge of the 1989 Palmolive dishwash liquid: "You know you're soaking in it" in the nailbar (Kiwi Retro, 2015). "You know you're soaking in it" was often paired with "Ooo, it does get in" (surprisingly!). However what was REALLY surprising was that this ad was completely lifted from a US Palmolive ad, from 1976 (Bionic Disco, 2024), right down to exactly the same script. 

Then of course there is the four Yorkshiremen skit, originally by Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Marty Feldman in episode 6 of "At Last the 1948 Show", but taken over by the Monty Python team, with the protagonists telling more and more outrageous stories of childhood poverty, ending with "And you try and tell the young people of today that, and they won't believe you" (TheFullMontyPython, 2007, 3:07). In our family it morphed slightly into said "tell that to the young people of today, and they'll not believe you".

Funny how talking about these sparks more memories, deciphering our idiosyncratic family language.

Sam

References:

AustralianAds. (2010, February 14). Mrs Marsh's Colgate Fluoriguard ad (Australian ad, 1970's) [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/h21jl2pLc1o

Bionic Disco. (2024, December 30). Palmolive Liquid 'You're Soaking In It' Commercial (1976) [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/5I8u4XZo1IQ

Kiwi Retro. (2015, May 5). Palmolive Ad 1989 - Madge - Celebration [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/CXvUXM3xURU

Knight, T. (2024, March 19). Suzanne Paul: An Infomercial Queen On Life After Luminous Spheres. New Zealand Herald. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/viva/culture/suzanne-paul-an-infomercial-queen-on-life-after-luminous-spheres/JZMOHHHJ5JB2ZOCGIOMQJ6JH3I/

Lyrics Translate. (2026). The Wife of Bath's Tale [from G. Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales]. https://lyricstranslate.com/en/geoffrey-chaucer-wife-baths-tale-lyrics.html

TheFullMontyPython. (2007, December 5). Four Yorkshiremen- Monty Python [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/ue7wM0QC5LE

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Catchphrases ride again!

Already it is time for another lot of catchphrases. Having written about these before (here), I continue to record those items I stumbled across since my last update.

Ah: the old NZI add. The Aussies are always stealing New Zealand icons, remember; so, to avoid people "stealing your stuff" we need to be insured (Phlashman, 2007, 0:23). This one has been used in various butchered forms in our family, but usually just "someone's always stealing your stuff".

Then,  from 1975 on, there is the Australian/New Zealand Telethon jingle, "Thank you very much for your kind donation" (Nostalgia Duck, 2018), and - as the first Telethon producer was shipped in from Perth (Perry, 1992; Tennant, 2013) - that was how the Aussie jingle was absorbed into New Zealand culture. Telethon TV ratings in Aotearoa sometimes "exceeded 70 per cent of the population" with per capita donations [in] 1978" reaching NZD$3m on a population of three million people, gaining entry into the Guinness Book of Records (Perry, 1992, p. 18). An accidental recent reminder when hearing a British Roses chocolates ad, where they had ...er ...repurposed the Telethon jingle which has become ubiquitous in the UK, with the Brits not realising its Antipodean roots (Business Education Resources, 2022, 9.46). 

Most Kiwis would be utterly sure that the KFC cartoon ad - "The cows and the sheep and the birds and the horses were mooing and baaing in and whistling and neighing; having lunch in the sun, while Hugo and I were having none, in the back seat, we sat: getting thinner..." (eat4freeatkfc, 2010) - was a Kiwi ad. But while we all knew the words to "Hugo Said You Go", it was in fact created by Aussie ad house, Zap Productions, and used in Australia (New Zealand on Screen, 2026a).

The New Zealand Milk Promotion Council, to the tune of Grieg's Morning Mood (Op 23, from Peer Gynt), advertised the white gold to us all, with "Morning girls!" "Where are we going?" "Milking. With Murray" (New Zealand on Screen, 2026b). And woe-betide any family friends called Murray. They were regaled with "Where are we going?" in a bovine voice to the refrain of "Milking. With Murray", which seemed to never get old... to us.

I have no idea why the Chef pet food ad refrain, "Snowy, Tiger, Jellimeat for dinner!" stuck in our collective family consciousness. But it did. And it is how we would announce mealtimes in our family. There is some confusion in general as to whether the names are "Snowy, Tiger", or "Joey, Tiger" (New Zealand 1980s memories, 2025); but in our family it was definitely assumed that this was "Snowy" and "Tiger". Hmm. And as Chef advertising tended to go for common pet names, white cats tend to be called "Snowy"; it seems more likely that the name was/is "Snowy".

Then there was "Well, I think we've done enough for a Mallowpuff" from the Griffin's biscuit ad (DigitaliseMe, 2022, 0:31). We often had done enough, we felt ;-)

Sam

References:

Business Education Resources. (2022, December 9). Secret World Of Christmas Chocolate S02E06 [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/QDa3QpxlFxQ?si=3f0QBRLIgVE-uKSl

DigitaliseMe. (2022, October 31). Mallowpuffs 1993 Nz Ad [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/PZ1yOguHLSs

eat4freeatkfc. (2010, June 17). Kentucky Fried Chicken Commercial - Hugo & Holly [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/0YtAVIGq1ko

New Zealand 1980s memories and 1990s Memories's post [sic]. (2025, January 29). Meeeoooow [Facebook]. https://www.facebook.com/nz80s/posts/meeeoooow/1037464791750870/

New Zealand On Screen. (2026a). Hugo and Holly - Kentucky Fried Chicken: Commercial (Full Length) – 1975. https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/kfc-hugo-and-holly

New Zealand On Screen. (2026b). Till the Cows Come Home: Commercial (Full Length) – 1981. https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/till-the-cows-come-home-1981

Nostalgia Duck (2018, March 29). Telethon NZ - Thank You Very Much For Your Kind Donation [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/SaWkfmmmjDQ

Perry, N. (1994). The Dominion of Signs: Television, advertising and other New Zealand fictions. Auckland University Press.

Phlashman. (2007, February 1). Someone always wants to steal your stuff!!! [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Pn_AfVS0IWY

Tennant, M. (2013). Fun and fundraising: the selling of charity in New Zealand's past. Social History, 38(1), 46-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/03071022.2013.755390

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Literally figurative

It is interesting how often we understand the meaning of a saying - i.e., an analogy or metaphor - but forget about its literal meaning. Actually, sayings are - per se - interesting, whether we call them metaphors, aphorisms, analogies, maxims, similes, adages, witticisms, axioms, clichés, saws, epigrams, one-liners, proverbs, figures of speech, or idioms. Or even allegories. And yes, I know these all have slight nuances in definition, but most of us would see these as being largely the same. And that 'same' is nicely epigrammed as "a crystallised summary of popular wisdom or fancy" (Apperson et al., 2006, p. 5).

How do these things arise? These are things which can be more broadly "understood in other than their literal significance" (Lurie, 1968, p. iii): pithy phrases which convey rich meaning in shorthand that captures the imagination of those who hear it. They grow from the literal to the figurative (Johnson, 2016).

However, that shorthand can also lead to overuse. And that changes our tolerance for such sayings, known as 'semantic satiation'. What a great term: this is where our sayings "become less meaningful as a [result of their] function of repetition" (Black, 2003, p. 63). The act of repeat after repeat after repeat means the sayings lose impact. Think of "All roads lead to Rome" (Apperson et al., 2006, p. 17) which has been flogged like the dead horse it is.

It is not only familiarity and time which changes our perspective. Over time meaning drifts as well, allowing us to apply a saying to a band of similar experiences, rather than simply describing the original event. For example, the "All roads lead to Rome" saying no longer means anything because Rome is no longer the centre of the known world. Or the aphorism "the canary in the mineshaft" once literally meant potentially sacrificing a canary by lowering a cage down the mineshaft, so if it came up alive, the miners knew the air was sweet below. The mine was safe for workers. However, today, "the canary" is not about a dead bird to show safety, but "the canary in the mineshaft [...] is a signal of danger[, ... an early warning] signal [...] that we need to take [something in our immediate environment] seriously" (Hollnger, 2021). More modern legal usage is where lawyers may see "the jury is the canary in the mine shaft; if it goes, if our people lose their inherited right to do justice in court, other democratic institutions will lose breath too" (Burns, 2007, p. 8).

Something we say, formed over time, usually began by describing a particular event, such as the "ring, a ring o' roses" rhyming child's ring dance, where increased knowledge of the plague and conspiracy theorists linked in the 20th century linked "the pocket full of posies" to the futile herb bundles we carried to ward off the black death, and "A-tishoo, a-tishoo, we all fall down" to the arrival of illness and the immediacy of death (Ferguson, 2018). But this is an etymological fallacy: it was always just a ring dance, and had nothing to do with the plague (Fergusson, 2018).

So sayings not only have drift due to time, saturation and fallacy, the speed of meaning drift may increase, too. It appears that our digital world may be a key driver here... and interestingly, the computer age has provided us with a great saying: "garbage in, garbage out" (Simpson, 1982, as cited by Speake, 2008).

Sam

References:

Apperson, G. L., Manser, M. H., Curtis, S. J. (2006). Dictionary of Proverbs (new ed.). Wordsworth Editions Ltd.

Black, S. R. (2004). Chapter 4: Review of Semantic Satiation. In S. P. Shohov (Ed.), Advances in Psychology Research (Vol. 26, pp. 63-74). Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Burns, R. P. (2007). The Death of the American Trial. University of Chicago Press.

Gross, J. (1987). The Oxford Book of Aphorisms. Oxford University Press.

Grothe, M. (2008). I Never Met a Metaphor I Didn't Like: A Comprehensive Compilation of History's Greatest Analogies, Metaphors, and Similes. HarperCollins.

Hollnger, P. C. (2021, November 30). Why Physical Punishment Persists: Ignorance of early child development enables physical punishment. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/great-kids-great-parents/202111/why-physical-punishment-persists

Johnson, R. (2016). Understanding Sayings: Figuratively speaking. Crabtree Publishing Company.

Lurie, C. N. (1968). Everyday sayings: their meanings explained, their origins given. Gale Research Co.

Speake, J. (Ed.). (2008). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (5th ed.). Oxford University Press.

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Even more on catchphrases

Oh no: it is time for another update on catchphrases. I have written about these before (here), and have continued recording those items I have encountered.

My Mother always had us in stitches as children with a black and white scary film she went to in London many years ago, where the whatever-it-was was running amok, then everything went silent. Meaningful looks between the lead actors. Winding up for a portentous speech: "Something's happened!". This too was adopted by our family. We still have no idea what the film was.

Then there is "There can be only one" from the film, "Highlander" (Mulcahy, 1986, 1:56:00). Why? Because it implies that as the leaders are, so shall the followers be. Good leadership will inspire good followership. A stink will create a stink throughout.

There is a "barnyard vocabulary" quote from US President Lyndon B. Johnson, where he said, while trying to fire FBI head, J. Edgar Hoover, "Well, it's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside pissing in" (Williams, 1973, p. 275). Another of my favourites.

For some reason a phrase that sticks in my mind - incorrectly, as it happens - is a couplet from Wordsworth poem, the Solitary Reaper, which I cite as in remembrance of "old, unhappy, far-off things, and battles long ago" (Gardiner, 1985, p. 505). I find this imagery incredibly evocative. However, it should lead with "For", but I impute that "Of" ;-)

Now a local one. When kicking off his sales pitch, one of the main characters, Jack, in the 2001 film Stickmen said "Let me let you in on a little secret" (Rothwell & Ward, 2001, 13:18) about scamming the elderly into buying water filters. A madam bawling "Off you go!" at one of her girls' drivers (44:18). The writer in a cameo saying "Yeah, OK. I'm not doing anything else" when being picked up by a prostitute (45:25).

The next one is "softly, softly catchy monkey"; saying we should tai hoa (more on that one here). Actually, both were common sayings in our family: maybe due to the rip shit and bust nature of our progress through things! According to Michael Quinion (2013), a highly esteemed reader for the OED, it is derived from a Ghanaian tribal saying, first recorded in print as "softly softly catchee monkey" (Baden-Powell, 1900, p. 6); but actually a likely translation of "the Wolof proverb, Ndànk-ndànk, mooy jàpp golo ci ñaay" or "Slowly, slowly one catches a monkey in the forest" (Wiktionary, 2025).

That brings me to "rip shit and bust"! Common parlance in the 1970s and 1980s in New Zealand, this is someone who crashes through doing a task and usually buggers it up due to their unseemly haste. This is, according to McGill, a Kiwi saying (1988, p. 93).

And to end this epistle: "We're taking this car to Invercargill" from Goodbye Pork Pie (Murphy & Mune, 1981).

Sam

References:

Baden-Powell, R. S. S. (1900). Downfall of Prempeh: A diary of life with the native Levy in Ashanti. Methuen & Co.

Gardiner, H. (Ed.). (1985). The New Oxford Book of English Verse. Oxford University Press.

McGill, D. (1988). A Dictionary of Kiwi Slang: Up the boohai shooting pukakas. Mills Publications.

Mulcahy, R. (Director). (1986). Highlander[motion picture]. Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment.

Murphy, G. (Director, Writer), & Mune. I. (Writer). (1981). Goodbye Pork Pie [motion picture]. Hanway Films.

Quinion, M. (2013, October 19). Softly, softly, catchee monkey. World Wide Words. https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa-sof2.html

Rothwell, H. (Director), Ward, N. (Writer) (2001). Stickmen [motion picture]. New Zealand Film Commission/Portman Entertainment

Wiktionary. (2025). softly, softly, catchee monkey. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/softly,_softly,_catchee_monkey

Williams, T. H. (1973). Huey, Lyndon, and Southern Radicalism. The Journal of American History, 60(2), 267-293. https://doi.org/10.2307/2936776

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Seeing different word meanings

There are many words where the meaning looks like it should mean one thing, but actually have meanings that don't seem to match that impression... if you catch my drift. Words that appear to be apples, when they are in fact oranges.

I have a little list of works that often make me smile. For example:

• Benchmark: crushed carpet, or floor marks caused by benches
• Chancery: the act of taking a chance
• Bemuse: to become someone's muse
• Wizen: to become wise, or wizardish
• Nonplussed: cannot be totalled
• Cacophony: a chocolate telephone
• Inkling: a small biro cartoon
• Swordfish: catching fish with a sword 
• Halitosis: having a toxic, sentient computer on your spaceship (Clarke, 1968). Actually, this last one is interesting. It sounds Latin-derived, and we assume it means bad breath... possibly arising from dental caries. However, apparently "there’s no such thing as halitosis. It was a made up medical condition coined by the owner of Listerine in the 1920s [...] , company owner Jordan Wheat Lambert decided to [...] market his product as a cure for bad breath. To convince the public that they needed Listerine, Lambert scoured the dictionary and happened upon an old Latin word meaning breath, halitus, which he decided to stylize as halitosis to make it sound like a legitimate medical condition" (Smallwood, 2018) running Listerine ads for hundred years.

There are many more where these came from. There is nothing like having a bit of fun, in seeing the ridiculous in our own language.

Sam

References:

Clarke, A. C. (1968). 2001: A space odyssey. Hutchinson.

Smallwood, K. (2018, April 18). 10 Words That Don’t Really Mean Anything. Top 10s. https://www.toptenz.net/10-words-that-dont-really-mean-anything.php

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More on catchphrases

Our family were collectors of catch phrases from popular media which somehow managed to anchor in our collective psyche. As we have created our own families, those habits have endured. I have written about catchphrases before (here), but that post reminded me about our family habit, and I began to note some favourites as I encountered them. I have collected some of these phrases in this post. 

Such as this line from The Castle where the Kerrigan family are served rissoles at the dinner table: "Yeah, but it's what you do with it" (Sitch, 1997, 11:23). I always impute a 'darl' onto the end of that particular line, although the 'darl' occurs in the earlier exploration of the sponge cake "What d'you call that, darl?" (2:40). Not to mention the classic place to store precious presents from the family: "This is going straight to the pool room" (8:20), "Looks like everybody's kicked a goal" (18:06) about seasoning on chicken, and "We're going to Bonny Doon" (23:36). 

I also love the phrase "A fish goes rotten from it's head" (from the Turkish, "the fish stinks first at the head", Porter, 1768, p. 27). Why? Because it implies that as the leaders are, so shall the followers be. Good leadership will inspire good followership. A stink will create a stink throughout. 

"I love it when a plan comes together" (Hasburgh & Cannell, 1983). Ah, the A Team. Gone but not forgotten.

Which leads me to "Ah, it's the old [XXX] trick" from Get Smart (Stern & Sultan, 1965-1970); the "cone of silence" (which morphed into the 'cone of shame' for pet post-op self-harm prevention); and "Sorry about that, chief" the latter being our father's favourite stock phrase. 

Then there was the Fabergé organics shampoo: the ad which had Heather Locklear saying "I told two friends about it, and they told two friends, and so on, and so on, and so on" while the screen divided into two, four, eight, sixteen and so on Heathers (ewjxn, 2020, 0:07). 

Or how about "Thunderbirds are GO!" (Anderson, 1966). Nothing like telling people that, to galvanise us all: darned near sixty years on.

And then there is the often mis-quoted opening crawl from the first Star Wars movie, "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away....", which I always remember as long, long "ago, in a galaxy far, far away...." (Lucas, 1977). 

Not to mention from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, John Cleese's French Maitre'D character offering Terry Jones's Mr Creosote: "And finally, monsieur, a wafer-thin mint" (Monty Python, 2025), before Mr Creosote explodes, first verbally, then physically. 

And the Life of Brian (1979). So many to choose from here! John Cleese as a Roman Centurion "Wha's this then" and proceeds to give Brian a Latin grammar lesson (24:47). Mandy, mother of Brian, saying "He's not the messiah! He's a very naughty boy!" (1:05:34). "Only the true Messiah denies His divinity!" Brian retorts "What?! Well, what sort of chance does that give me? All right! I am the Messiah!" whereupon his followers say "He is! He is the Messiah!"(1:01:50). And finally, where Eric Idle sings "Some things in life are bad, they can really make you mad; and other things just make you swear and curse. When you are chewing on life's gristle; don't grumble, give a whistle! And this'll make things turn out for the best -" (1:29:43).

"...and always look on the bright side of life" (1:30:04).

Sam

References:

Anderson, S. (1966). Thunderbirds Are Go [puppet film]. Century 21 Productions.

ewjxn. (2020, March 4). 1984 Fabergé Organics shampoo "Heather Locklear told two friends" TV Commercial [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Hyxmj1Yf6Dk

Hasburgh, P. (Producer), & Cannell, S. J. (Writer). (1983). The A-Team Series 1 [Lt.Col. John "Hannibal" Smith catchphrase]. NBC.

Jones, T. (1979). Life of Brian [film]. HandMade Films; Python (Monty) Pictures.

Lucas, G. (Writer, Director). (1977). Star Wars [Episode IV: A New Hope]. Lucasfilm.

Monty Python. (2025). The Meaning of Life Script - Part VI: The Autumn Years. http://www.montypython.50webs.com/scripts/Meaning_of_Life/10.htm

Porter, J. (1768). Observations on the Religion, Law, Government, and Manners, of the Turks (Vol 1.). J. Norse Bookseller.

Sitch, R. (Director). (1997). The Castle [film]. Working Dog Productions.

Stern, L. B. (Executive Producer), Sultan, A. (Executive Producer, 1968–70). (1965-1970). Get Smart [TV Series, 1-5]. Talent Associates; CBS Productions.

Wikipedia. (2025). Monty Python's Life of Brian. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python's_Life_of_Brian

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A tax on hope

I read a great phrase last year that lotteries were a tax on hope. So I tried to find out where that came from. However, it proved to be a very tricky phrase to track to the source.

A GoogleScholar search found a number of articles which used the phrase, including:

"lottery tickets are like a tax on hope: secretly we all dream of winning the jackpot, and when we don’t, we feel cheated or unlucky" (Iñiguez, 2023, p. 48-49)

That while governments have a range of tools to raise capital, a "common factor remained cashing in on gambling to generate revenue" with the "state as gaming house keeper" which could then "lev[y] a 'tax on hope'" (Zollinger, 2016, p. 35); with a footnote "This notion, however, was usually applied to lotteries" (p. 35)

"State-run lotteries are sometimes referred to as a 'stealth' tax, a 'tax on hope,' or a 'tax on the poor.' A breakdown of the revenue distribution from each ticket shows that a significant percentage is almost always taxed by the state" (Hadzi-Miceva-Evans, 2009, p. 77). Sadly, the footnote for the quote points us to a rotten link (Hansen, 2005)

Lottery ticket sales are ubiquitous in Italy, with Italians considering "them as a sort of tax on hope [...] and we all have hope" (Waugh, 1997, 692)

US magazine, Taxes, explained that charging citizens taxes based on their future share returns was a "tax on hope" (Richard, 1957, p. 818).  

So the earliest I found was the 1950s. I was so sure there must be earlier appearances: largely because this phrase sounds so very Victorian. That kind of judgy-holier-than-thou sanctimony that people in long skirts can carry off so effectively. Interestingly, it seems that "the more states [or governments] need money, the more tolerant they are of gambling" (Zollinger, 2016, p. 35); presumably as that means to raise funds which are outside the income or GST/VAT system. Those who gamble may not think through to the logical end: that state-sanctioned gambling is still a form of taxation; instead, gamblers see it as a 'chance'. 

However, I think my desire to associate the phrase with the Victorians is misplaced. It seems that the source may well be Bertrand Russell. While he was a Victorian baby (born in 1872), in 1951, he presented a talk to "the corporate customers" of a printing company called Hazell Watson & Viney, "comparing the reach of books to that of broadcasts" (Leal & Marraud, 2022, p. 2, citing Blackwell & Ruja, 1993, p. xxxix), hoping that:

The BBC's new "Third Programme [might] so stimulate the intellectual life of the nation that it will read more books than ever before. Let us hope so, since as yet there is no tax on hope" (Blackwell & Ruja, 1993, p. xxxix; Leal & Marraud, 2022, p. 2). The 'third programme' was an educational channel tasked with delivering science and factual information to the nation, funded by the taxpayer. So it appears that 'a tax on hope' may not have originally referred to lotteries, but to the use of public money to develop the intellect of the national UK population.

Bertrand Russell had such a gift for language that I am happy to attribute this fine phrase to him. Of course the saying may pre-date him: I will stay vigilant for an earlier version in print, but I feel that I may have found the originator. 

"I love it when a plan comes together" (Hasburgh & Cannell, 1983). 

 

Sam

References:

Blackwell, K., and Ruja, H. (1993). A bibliography of Bertrand Russell (Vol. I). Routledge.

Hadzi-Miceva-Evans, K. (2009). Lottery Proceeds as Tool for Support of Good Causes and Civil Society Organizations: A Fate or a Planned Concept. International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law, 12(4), 71-79. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/ijnpl12&i=376

Hansen, A. (2005). Lotteries are another state tax—but with better marketing. The Tax Foundation. https://taxfoundation.org/lotteries-are-another-state-tax-better-marketing/

Hasburgh, P. (Producer), & Cannell, S. J. (Writer). (1983). The A-Team Series 1 [Lt.Col. John "Hannibal" Smith catchphrase]. NBC.

Iñiguez, S. (2023). Philosophy Inc: Applying Wisdom to Everyday Management. Palgrave Macmillan.

Richard, D. (1957). In This Issue. Taxes - The Tax Magazine, 35(11), 818-821. https://heinonline.org/HOL/P?h=hein.journals/taxtm35&i=838

Waugh, D. (1997). The Die is Cast. Canadian Medical Association, 156(5), 692. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1232840/pdf/cmaj_156_5_692.pdf

Zollinger, M. (Ed.). (2016). Random Riches: Gambling past & present. Routledge.

read more "A tax on hope"

Lies, damned lies and statistics

It is fascinating how often we attribute things to people without checking. However, I know a few people who are SCRUPULOUS in checking. One is Garson O'Toole of Quote Investigator's fame (here), and the other is Michael Quinion of World Wide Words (here). WikiQuote is also reasonably accurate (here). 

My husband and I were talking about the coiner of the phrase "lies, damned lies, and statistics" recently, and he thought it was a saying of Mark Twain's, and I thought that Mark Twain had attributed it to someone else. In full, the unattributed quote is "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics". 

I consulted the first of my three gurus: Garson O'Toole (actually the pseudonym for Professor Gregory F. Sullivan). A quick search showed that Mark Twain in 1895 had attributed the saying to former British PM, Benjamin Disraeli (O'Toole, 2022). However, the quote was not found in any of Disraeli's works, despite so much of Mr Disraeli's work having been formalised in writing. Undeterred from the lack of evidence, Garson O'Toole (2022) did a thorough search and found that one T. Mackay, in a letter to the editor of The National Observer on 8 June 1891, said "It has been wittily remarked that there are three kinds of falsehood: the first is a ‘fib,’ the second is a downright lie, and the third and most aggravated is statistics" (Mackay, 1891), which is pretty close to the quote as we know it today. 

Neither WikiQuote nor Michael Quinion had any dates earlier than 8 June 1891, so O'Toole (2022) seems to offer the earliest evidence. However, it sounds to me from Mr Mackay's letter that the witticism may have already been in relatively common usage in June of 1891 (NB: the usually utterly accurate Quote Investigator noted the date of Mr Mackay's letter as 13 June when it was the 8th). So the saying "lies..." etc is older than 8 June 1891. It was not created by Mark Twain: he reused it four years later. On another continent. And attributed it to a famous person: PM Benjamin Disraeli (as we so often do today, attributing to a famous person), but that attribution may not have been accurate enough. 

Evidence may be found that Mr Disraeli may indeed be the originator; but we lack evidence for that right now. We do have evidence that the first person currently having recorded it in writing was Mackay (1891).

It will be interesting to see what other sources are found as time goes by. Hopefully we may find the originator :-)

Sam

References:

Mackay, T. (1891, June 13). National Pensions [Letters to the Editor]. The National Observer, 6(134), p. 93. https://archive.org/details/sim_the-national-observer-and-british-review-of-politics_1891-06-13_6_134/page/93/mode/1up

Quinion, M. (2025). Search. World Wide Words. https://worldwidewords.org/search.htm

O'Toole, G. (2022, June 22). Quote Origin: There Are Three Kinds of Lies: Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics. Quote Investigator. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/06/22/lies-statistics/

Wikiquote. (2025). Home. https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Main_Page

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Fish go rotten from the head

To help to ensure good governance, boards need "both competence and sufficient diversity around the boardroom table" (Garratt, 2010, p. xv), carefully working through "the necessary balances, competences, evaluations and learning needed to ensure more healthy organizations in future - to stop the fish rotting from the head" (pp. xv-xvi). The governance board is considered to be the 'head' of the organisation; the setter of externally-focused strategy, big picture thinking, direction, vision and values (Garratt, 2010). The body of the organisation is the staff and management, who look to internally-focused tactics and management, operational thinking, mission, tasks and actions. If the head is good, the fish will be sweet: that sound, measured leadership should lead to sound strategy. However, if the head is bad, the 'fish' will be rotten; that poor leadership leads to poor strategy... and thus the fish has gone rotten from its head. 

This saying is a metaphor for allocating responsibility to where the power actually lies, I feel. The body is not powerful: the head is. 

It is thought the "fish rots from the head" saying, so commonly used in governance circles (Garratt, 2010), comes from the Turkish:

"The Turks have a homely proverb applied on such occasions: they say 'the fish stinks first at the head,' meaning that if the servant is disorderly, it is because the master is so" (Porter, 1768, p. 27).

It is interesting that in 250 years there has been little drift: that the current, commonly-held meaning remains close to that of Porter (1768). Further, it is suggested that the Turkish poet, Rumi, published this adage in 1273 as a "Fish begins to stink at the head, not the tail" (Martin, 2023; Pearson, 2022), but I have not sighted the original, so cannot attest to the veracity!

But I do like the saying. Evocative :-)

Sam

References:

Garratt, B. (2010). The Fish Rots from the Head: Developing effective board directors (3rd ed.). CPI Bookmarque Ltd.

Martin, G. (2023, December 11). A fish rots from the head down. Phrase Finder. https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/fish-rot-from-the-head-down.html

Pearson. (2022, May 18). The Fish Rots from the Head – Meaning, Origin and Usage. https://english-grammar-lessons.com/the-fish-rots-from-the-head-meaning/

Porter, J. (1768). Observations on the Religion, Law, Government, and Manners, of the Turks (Vol 1.). J. Norse Bookseller.

read more "Fish go rotten from the head"

Bump of Language

A phrenological diagram (Combes, 1934,
p. 20, citing Dolci, 1562)

Despite having done languages at secondary school, I sadly do not have a "bump of language" 😭. Five years of French and Japanese tutoring was no match for my lack of linguistic skill.

I am not a dilettante, falling at the first hurdle; I certainly did try. I also thought that perhaps it was that the two languages I was taught may have been simply those which I was most unsuited for. I have since tried Russian, German, and Maori. I am pretty evenly crap at all of them.

I can remember individual words, I can generally 'hear' the sounds reasonably accurately (except for the tonal languages like Mandarin) and mimic them, but for the life of me, I cannot conjugate a non-English verb anywhere, anyhow. By the time I have worked out how to say "I said" the conversation has moved on to something completely unrelated... and that probably happened ten minutes ago.

So I don't have a bump of language. And that got me thinking about where that saying, a "bump of language" came from. I assumed it was probably from phrenology, but have no idea where I had picked it up from. However, a quick search found the source online at Project Gutenburg, in the second memoir of Canadian author, Susanna Moodie: "Life in the Clearings versus the Bush" (1853) where the author recalls, towards the end of chapter 4:

"going with my husband to hear the lectures of a [US hypnotist and probable charlatan] Professor R---" who charged "two dollars for examining a head phrenologically, and drawing out a chart", as well as hypnotising various people in the audience. Professor R chose "a man who had lectured a few nights before on the science of mnemonics, and had been disappointed in a very scanty attendance".

The author noted that "the new subject yielded very easily to the professor's magic passes, and fell into a profound sleep". Professor R led the mnemonics scientist "with his eyes shut, to the front of the stage, and pointed out to the spectators the phrenological development of his head; he then touched the bump of language, and set the seeming automaton talking. But here the professor was caught in his own trap. After once setting him going, he of the mnemonics refused to hold his tongue until he had given, to his weary listeners, the whole lecture he had delivered a few nights before. He pranced to and fro on the platform, declaiming in the most pedantic voice" for an hour before shutting up. "It was a droll scene: [...] the declaimer pretending to be asleep, and wide awake all the time -- and the thin, long-faced American, too wise to betray [the subject], but evidently annoyed beyond measure at the trick [...] played [on] him".

A bump of language. An old phrase indeed. 

Sam

References:

Goodreads. (2024). Life in the Clearings versus the Bush [review]. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/496350.Life_in_the_Clearings_versus_the_Bush

Moodie, S. (1853). Life in the Clearings versus the Bush. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/8132/8132-h/8132-h.htm

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The interrobang

The name of this diacritical is a new one on me: the interrobang, the conflation of a question mark, and an exclamation mark. Once you know what it is, the name makes total sense: asking a rhetorical question, including the shock that this [idea, proposal, action] could even be suggested. Proposed by ad man Martin K. Speckter in a 1962 TYPEtalks magazine article, this diacritical was called interrobang as a conflation of the Latin, 'interrogatio', (i.e. rhetorical question/cross-examination), and the printer's 'bang', or exclamation mark (99 Percent Invisible, 2018).

The interrobang will rarely be used in academic writing as it carries with it a wealth of emotion. It is not an objective and balanced piece of punctuation: it carries a WTF indicator (also not generally used in academic writing 😂). Interrobangs tend to be used in marketing and social media as two discrete pieces of punctuation (?!) as opposed to the interrobang itself, which is a single character (‽).

There are circumstances when we may use the interrobang in academic writing though: when we are either drawing on, or reporting verbatim the words of others. We may, for example, use it in content analyses, findings, reporting actual interviewees words, and possibly in literature review quotes.

Interestingly, the interrobang is also used in chess, "to represent a dubious move, one that is questionable but possibly has merits" (Wikipedia, 2024). Interesting how the meaning has already shifted in chess from a straight out dumb idea to focusing more on the shock end.

It is not only language that is fascinating: diacriticals are too!

Sam

References:

99 Percent Invisible. (2018, July 10). Episode 314: Interrobang. https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/interrobang/

Wikipedia. (2024a). Interrobang. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interrobang

Wikipedia. (2024b). Proposed Interrobangs [Creative Commons 3.0 image]. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Proposed-interrobangs-from-type-talks-march-april-1962-drawn-by-jack-lipton-of-martin-k-speckter-associates-inc-iaqgraphicdesign.png

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The word 'tracklements'

I heard of the word 'tracklements' in a Terry Pratchett Discworld book some years ago, and was quite taken with it (2007, 2009, 2014). According to the great Michael Quinion of World Wide Words (2001) the term first appeared in print relatively recently, in Dorothy Hartley's 1954 tome, "Food in England". The implication is that tracklements are accompaniments for meat; specifically - in Ms Hartley's writing - as support flavours fitting with mutton. She explains that rosemary 'works' with sheep meat as it is akin to bay leaves, before continuing with an exposition on red currant jelly:

"Since the earliest times red-currant jelly has been served with mutton. There is the same dual flavour in an orange. The orange essential oil aroma is in the yellow rind; the flavour in the juice. So you rub off the rind as well as the juice to get the aroma as well as the flavour" (Hartley, 1954, p. 161). Over the page, the explanation continues: "...and for most of the valley breeds of mutton it [red currant jelly] is still the best. Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Leicestershire, Shropshire, and all such breeds take red-currant jelly. To the east—Leicester and Norfolk and the uplands— an excellent jelly can be made from the barberry. It is slightly more acid and tart than the red currant, and seems to suit the meat better. The jelly for Welsh and mountain mutton should be the rowan or mountain ash" (p. 162). On the final page, we get "(The very delicately flavoured mountain mutton is lost under the stronger tart red currant.) The subtle, slightly smoky flavour of the rowan suits its own climate and locality very much better. Rowan jelly is more golden than red-currant but is equally clear. The berries are ripe from October onwards, as soon as they hang down. With the rather dull winter mutton of the garden lands, hot onion sauce is very comforting. The salt-marsh mutton, or saltings mutton, should be served with hot laver sauce. This is gathered on the sea-coast between tides (see Laver). It is sold ready-prepared in many places: Mother Yeo’s shop in Bideford, in shops in Exeter, markets in Devon, Cornwall and South Wales. Samphire grows on the cliffs (though why Shakespeare referred to gathering samphire as a 'dread calling' only a Warwickshire man knows). It grows on the golf-course at Westward Ho! It is pungent, strongly aromatic, and brings out the flavour of the saltings perfectly. Caper sauce is served with any of the sturdier types of garden mutton. In default of the imported caper, pickled nasturtium seeds are good" (p. 163)

Commenting on Ms Hartley's book, Terry Pratchett is quoted as saying that "This is not [simply] a book of recipes but [one that] celebrates food, the history of food and almost, you might say, the philosophy of food. It changes the way you think; the article about tracklements is particularly wonderful. You don't know what a tracklement is? The answer is" in Food in England (Hachette UK, 2024). Terry Pratchett himself used 'tracklements', first as a name for dog biscuits in Making Money (2007, p. 125), then in Unseen Academicals (2009, p. 22-23), detailing the fixation of hungry senior academics in the common room at Unseen University (UU) listening anticipatedly for the tea trolley:

"‘What? Oh, that. Well, yes. Indeed. Well done, that man,’ said Ridcully, and the wizards commenced that slow handclapping and table-thumping which is the mark of appreciation amongst men of a certain age, class and girth, accompanied by cries of ‘Ver’, ver’ well done, that man!’ and ‘Jolly good!’ But eyes stayed firmly fixed on the doorway, and ears strained for the rattle of the trolley, which would herald the arrival of the new girl and, of course, one hundred and seven types of cheese, and more than seventy different varieties of pickles, chutneys and other tracklements. The new girl might be the very paradigm of beauty, but UU was not the place for a man who could forget his cheeses".

And later, in Mrs. Bradshaw's Guide, with the narrator relating the following: 

"On a recent journey [...] I was seated next to an elderly gentleman who unpacked from his case several bottles of different patent medicines for digestive disorders. Having dosed himself he tucked a brightly coloured napkin into his collar and proceeded to balance on his knee a fine china tureen in which were assembled a brace of pig’s trotters, half a dozen pickled eggs, pickled onions, pickled plums, a small mountain of pickled red cabbage, a selection of chutneys and several types of mustard. The gentleman who offered this vinegary selection to his neighbours revealed that his lady wife ran her own pickling business and he was a martyr to her stock control system. It seems that any preserve approaching the end of its edible life was put in his packed lunch that he might share it among fellow travellers and thus introduce potential customers to the delights of Mrs Staines’s Tracklements" (2013, p. 29).

Tracklements. What a gorgeously evocative term.

Sam

References:

Hartley, D. (1954). Food in England. Macdonald General Books.

Hachette UK. (2024). Food in England. https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/dorothy-hartley/food-in-england/9780349430096/

Pratchett, T. (2007). Making Money. Doubleday/Transworld. 

Pratchett, T. (2009). Unseen Academicals. Doubleday/Transworld. 

Pratchett, T. (2013). Mrs Bradshaw's Guide. Doubleday/Transworld. 

Quinion, M. (2001, March 10). Tracklements. World Wide Words. https://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-tra1.htm

read more "The word 'tracklements'"

Catchphrases

We use catchphrases as social shorthand to convey meaning, and to create connection (Harris et al., 2008). Catchphrase was beautifully detailed by Mackay (1841, 1892), who said: "walk where we will, we cannot help hearing from every side a phrase repeated with delight, and received with laughter, by men with hard hands and dirty faces, by saucy butcher-lads and errand-boys, by loose women, by hackney-coachmen, cabriolet-drivers, and idle fellows who loiter at the corners of streets. Not one utters this phrase without producing a laugh from all within hearing. It seems applicable to every circumstance, and is the universal answer to every question; in short, it is the favourite slang of the day, a phrase that, while its brief season of popularity lasts, throws a dash of fun and frolicsomeness over [our] existence" (p. 240). Got to love those loose women. 

It was always a thing in our family to remember trite straplines and catchphrases from popular culture: whether the source is movies, TV shows, and advertising. We then pepper our conversation - often inappropriately - with them. Many of our family favourites have long legs indeed, surviving forty plus years. For example, the response to a recent purchase "yeah, but it's a Clayton's one" (i.e., fake; Wikipedia, 2024a); in response to needing to find some information while talking to family, responding "one moment caller" (scripted American-style responses used by Telecom NZ - co-owned by AT&T and Bell Atlantic, and often miss-pitched in the early 1980s - we use this as a filler for ANY pause while we rummage); and, in response to "what's for dinner?", the response "lots of Noodles!" (which was an instant noodles product. The brand itself is lost to the mists of time).

We also tend to reply to infomercial straplines in a catch and response way with "send no money now, we will bill you!" and "But wait, there's more!". While Culley (2022) suggests that the latter of these two catch phrases is QUITE old indeed - having arisen in the USA in 1949, in preparing a television ad for Vitamix blenders - when I viewed the ad itself, neither catchphrase is in the ad. I was unable to find any reference dated earlier than 1977; finding a Fossil magazine ad in Scientific American for "send no money now" (Lester, 1977). However, Script to Screen (2021) suggests that both "But wait, there's more!" and "send no money now, we will bill you" both arose from the Ginsu knives ad (Culley, 2022; The Museum of Classic Chicago Television, 2012; Wikipedia, 2024b), which is where my family remembers these two catchphrases from. It seems quite possible that "send now money now" was already a stock phrase. However, I think it was Ginsu's ad which popularlised the "how much would you pay?" and the "well, we will send you six precision steak knives for FREE!" (The Museum of Classic Chicago Television, 2012).

See below for the 1949 Vitamix ad, and the 1980 Ginsu knife ad.

Language is a fascinating thing.

Sam

References:

Culley, T. (2022). “But wait! There’s more.” Papa Bernard and the First TV infomercial. Academia Letters, 2022(1), 4676, 1-5. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4676

Harris, R. J., Werth, A. J., Bures, K. E., & Bartel, C. M. (2008). Social movie quoting: What, why, and how?. Ciencias Psicologicas, 2(1), 35-45. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260458479_Social_movie_quoting_What_why_and_how

Lester, H. A. (1977). The response to acetylcholine. Scientific American, 236(2), 106-120. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0277-106

Mackay, C. (1841). Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions (reprinted 1892). Richard Bentley.

Script to Screen. (2021, May 27). Infomercial. https://www.scripttoscreen.com/infomercial/

The Museum of Classic Chicago Television. (2012, February 3). The Ginsu (Commercial Offer, 1980) [video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wzULnlHr8w

Vitamix. (2021, June 18). Original 1949 Vitamix Infomercial - Papa Barnard [video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/Rm5IzzGPzQA

Wikipedia. (2024a). Claytons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claytons

Wikipedia. (2024b). Ginsu. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginsu

read more "Catchphrases"

Why a monkey wrench?

I was pondering the other day, why is a monkey wrench called a monkey wrench in common parlance? And is that the ‘proper’ name, or slang? And are there different names for this piece of kit in other countries? My husband calls this tool a pipe wrench. I have heard someone call it an adjustable spanner. I have the niggling feeling that I have also heard it called an adjustable crescent. The Aussies seem to call it a shifter. 

After a bit of digging, there was patent as a ‘screw adjust wrench’ first registered 190-odd years ago by one Solyman Merrick of - the Simpson’s town? - Springfield Massachusetts, on 17 August, 1835 (DATAMP, 2023a). And note the interesting spelling. I wonder how well educated Mr Merrick – or his Dad – was, in order to create such an unexpected and novel hash of Solomon. Ah, well.

Six years later, a Mr Coes of Worcester Massachusetts came up some interesting modifications, registering a one-handed wrench patent on 16 April 1941, for “Loring Coes’ Screw Wrench” (DATAMP, 2023b). A quick check of Google Maps shows that Merrick and Coes lived roughly 80km apart: could one have pinched the idea from the other? There was definitely some animosity, as Solyman Merrick and Loring Coes fought it out in the courts through the later 1800s trying to sort out just whom was infringing on whose patents.

But this was to no avail for poor Solyman, as Coes' patent appears to be the originator of all later tools now known colloquially as a ‘monkey’ wrench (DATAMP, 2023b; it could be the bad spelling wot did Solyman in, mind you). OK, so this is where the adjustable spanner tool was ‘born’, but why ‘monkey’?

A quick consult of the ‘shorter’ Oxford English Dictionary (1989) provides the following:

“monkey-wrench, a wrench or spanner having a movable jaw; also Tig., esp. in colloq. phr. to throw (or hurl) a monkey-wrench into the machinery, etc.; to act as an obstruction or hindrance; to ‘throw a spanner into the works’; hence as v. trans., to turn with a monkey-wrench” (p. 1006); followed by selected examples: “1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Monkey-wrench. [...] 1920 Everybody's Mag. May 36/3 Don’t throw a monkey-wrench into the machinery! 1931 Daily Express 16 Oct. 1/2 Mr. Lloyd George hurled a monkey wrench last night into the creaking and decrepit machinery of Liberalism” (p. 1007).

So by 1920, a monkey wrench was a metaphor for industrial sabotage, and by 1931, had the same connotation in politics (and 'a spanner in the works' too, no doubt). But still no idea why ‘monkey’.

I looked up the OED's earliest mention, in Simmonds’ Dictionary of Trade, to find “MONKEY WRENCH, a spanner with a moveable jaw” (1958, p. 251). There is no further explanation. The term must have been in common enough use by 1858 to have appeared in a dictionary of trade terms: the Dictionary’s preface states its aim was to “define only the ordinary and popular names – English or foreign; and consequently an [item can] be sought under its common designation” (p. vi).

Being little further ahead, I then consulted the guru on all things words, Michael Quinion, at World Wide Words. Blast it: I should have done that first. Mr Quinion (2009) says that the first VERIFIED sighting of monkey wrench turns up in an amazing inventory of the railways of the UK. Found under “Orders to Enginemen and Firemen” (Whishaw, 1940, p. 210) as part of the inventory of the “Liverpool and Manchester Railway” this 665 page work “includes [an 1837] list of tools that must be kept in a locomotive cab” (Quinion, 2009) which reads as follows:

“3. Every engineman shall have with him at all times in his tender the following tools […] A complete set of screw-keys, one large and one small monkey wrench…” (Whishaw, 1940, p. 211).

As railways were a UK invention, then it seems likely that the monkey wrench is a UK-named tool. But wait, there’s more. Mr Quinion knows of an – as yet – UNVERIFIED sighting, “dated 1807 to a firm supplying ‘Screw plates, lathes, clock engines [...] monkey wrenches, taps’. The entry in the online Oxford English Dictionary includes this but with a question mark before the date which means that their editors have yet to verify it beyond doubt” (2009, citing Dane, 1973; Miller, 2018). This refers to one Richard Fleetwood, who produced in Parr, Rainford in 1807 "Screw plates, lathes, clock engines, stocks and dies, milling tools, monkey wrenches, taps" (Dane, 1973, p. 219), but Dane's source evidence - as far as I know - has not been verified by the OED enough to be included in the dictionary. We don't know what this looked like though.  

A screw wrench engraving dating from 1809 by one William Barlow, shown in the “Repertory of Arts, Manufactures, and Agriculture, 15(2), Plate III, Figures 10-12” may be an early example (Brown, 2015). There is no sign that this was called a monkey wrench, and it is two years after the unverified 'monkey wrench' in Dane (1973), but it is possibly one, so I have illustrated this post with it.

So. The monkey wrench was in print BEFORE Loring Coes registered his patent. While Mr Coes screw wrench may be called a monkey wrench, it is a conferred existing name, not the original, because we know in 1837, engineers on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway had to carry them, and it appears that a Mr Fleetwood was making them in 1807 (Dane 1973). 

But why 'monkey'? We are still not getting closer to why this name. Some suggest that a monkey wrench is called a monkey wrench because the head looks like a monkey (Brown, 2015; Staten, 1996). Some think there was a bloke called "Moncky", "Monckey" or "Monk" in the mix (Miller, 2018; Staten, 1996). It would be interesting to know what an original monkey wrench actually looked like, but the book by Dane does not contain any plates, so we are no wiser. 

We know monkey wrenches have been about for a long time. It is probably a UK name into US usage and back into the UK. But we still don't know why it is called a monkey wrench. 

Sam

References:

Brown, P. J. (14 October 2015). Charles Monk, Monkey Wrenches and a "Monkey on a Stick" - a Gripping History and Etymology of "Monkey Wrench". https://esnpc.blogspot.com/2015/10/charles-monk-monkey-wrenches-and-monkey.html

Dane, E. S. (1973). Peter Stubs and the Lancashire Hand Tool Industry. John Sherratt & Sons Ltd.

DATAMP. (2023a). Patents for Solyman Merrick. Directory of American Tool and Machinery Parts. https://www.datamp.org/patents/search/xrefPerson.php?id=20137

DATAMP. (2023b). US Patent: 2,054: Method of Constructing Screw Wrenches Loring Coes Screw Wrench. Directory of American Tool and Machinery Parts. https://www.datamp.org/patents/search/displayPatent.php?number=2,054&type=

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