Dear Word Detective: My co-conspirators at the office and I have been debating the origin of “hold the line,” which might so easily derive simply from the era of the plug-and-socket manual telephone exchange. Then it occurred that it could have had military beginnings. Are you able to clarify for us? — Ian Wheeler, England.
You don’t say in what sense you’re using “hold the line,” but there are two primary meanings in English. One is, as the Oxford English Dictionary puts it, “to maintain telephonic connection during a break in conversation.” In such a situation, I might say “Hold the line” (or, more commonly today, “Please hold”) before I push the hold button, the purpose of the phrase being to let the caller know that I will be back and am not simply hanging up. This sense appeared around 1912, but it’s not really related to the old days of manual switchboards where lines were actually plugged in, and the imperative “hold” does not mean “don’t unplug.” “Hold” here is used in the very old sense of “preserve, keep or maintain.” A figurative use sometimes heard in the US is the expression “hold the phone,” meaning essentially “wait a minute” and indicating surprise (“Hold the phone! You mean Larry won the lottery?”). My sense is that “hold the phone” is more common than “hold the line” in this meaning.
The other sense of “hold the line” means “to maintain and preserve a position against attack, opposition or change” (“It’s important that the School Board hold the line against licentious apparel”). Given that you mention a possible military origin in your question, this is probably the sense you mean. But while this “hold the line” does conjure up visions of brave soldiers defending a position against an onslaught (probably of other brave soldiers), the source of the metaphor is not, in fact, military. The reference is to American football, and the “line” is the line of scrimmage where the ball sits at the start of each play, beyond which each team would rather its opponent not progress. Metaphorical use of “hold the line” in this sense is, no doubt, nearly as old as football, but, interestingly, the earliest usage recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from 1956, in singer Billie Holiday’s autobiography Lady Sings the Blues: “But 52nd Street couldn’t hold the line against Negroes forever.”
Evan
I posted this in reponse to a posting on Word Wizard where somebody had quoted your Word Detective site entry. Hope you find it interesting.
Regards
WoZ (David Porter)
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.. I can’t accept that with the importance of The Line in military tactics going back to the earliest legions that it took an American Football coach to first coin the phrase hold the line. .. to this end and with my limited research opportunities it only took a small time to find in Google newspapers the following references from 1853 onwards >>
Quote:
1853 – “If we hold the line [on city aid], we’ll be very lucky,” Mrs. Phelps said. The society, which was founded in 1853, serves annually more than 100000 New York City children and their families. New York Times (NOTE: I am not sure that this is an actual example of the idiom we are talking about. I think it has a closer relationship to the usage that refers to maintaining a particular line of thought.)
May 12, 1864—11 pm General WRIGHT, Commanding Sixth Corps. Your dispatch received. The major-general commanding directs me to say that the Fifth Corps has been under fire all day, too that they were sent to you to relieve your troops not to hold your line, but to form a column of attack which has been abandoned. From United States Congressional Serial Set
August 2, 1864. Brigadier- General GROSE, First Division, Fourth Army Corps: GENERAL: You will hold the line you now occupy until otherwise ordered. The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 1 – Volume 38 (Part V), page 331
October 22, 1864. Major-General WARREN: GENERAL: In view of our conversation this morning, I would like to know the number of men and guns it will require to hold the line of redoubts and enclosed batteries now held by your corps, including the minimum picket-line, which should be furnished as far as practicable from the garrisons of the works. . The war of the rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 1 – Volume 38 (Part V), page 305
May 5, 1880 – Humphreys can hold the line to the -road and the refusal along with it. New York Times
Nov 1, 1884 – I knew that I was safe if I could hold out till the arrival of reinforcements, which was but a matter of time; and, with the full sense of my own responsibility, I was determined to hold the line of the plateau, even if surrounded on all sides, until assistance should come. The Century, Volume 0029, Issue 1 (Nov 1884) Title: Battles and Leaders of the Civil War: The Battle of Bull Run [pp.80-100]
Nov 14, 1891 – His strongest play is breaking the line and making holes for his backs to run through. Mourey, left guard, Jefferis, center, and Wickes, right guard, are all comparatively new men and all three over 6 feet tall. Jefferis 201 and each of the others 180. They hold the line well. Chicago Tribune
Dec 23, 1898 – The Spaniards made one or two efforts to retake the line, but were promptly driven back. Both Gen. Sumner and you sent me word to hold the line at all hazards, and that night we dug a line of entrenchments across our front, using the captured Spanish entrenchment tools. New York Times
.. it seems from these early quotes that the idiom hold the line was well established in military terms before the early football quote, 1891, .. and given that American Football only introduced the line of scrimmage in 1880, I draw the conclusion that the erstwhile coach borrowed the expression from the military where it was well established ..
.. why by 1905 it had travelled Downunder to New Zealand , albeit by the use of a quote from London ..
Quote:
Feb 4, 1905 – Field-Marshal Oyama reports that the Japanese firmly hold the line of the Hunho, their extreme right, being established on the right bank. Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11475 (New Zealand)
.. there were many, many more quotes but they can easily be accessed on google newspapers .. however it is obvious that these quotes do predate the OED’s 1956 quote .. OMG I’ve done a Ken !!!! ..
WoZ holding the line Downunder