So our fellow traveler and Chair of Art stopped by today to pick up his copy of the novel. He asked about the history of the phrase "true grit." I had actually wondered the very same thing only this morning. Someone needs to do some more research, but here's what I found when I consulted the great god Google. This comes from a site called "Word Wizard."
"In the early 19th century, perhaps because ‘grit’ provides traction when something is slippery, such as an icy road, it came to be associated, as a colloquialism, with firmness or solidity of character, indomitable spirit, stamina, braveness or strength – to have genuine spirit or pluck. The expression 'to be clear, hard (etc.) grit' or ‘to be the grit’ meant to be the ‘right sort,’ the genuine ‘article.’
1825 “Proper fellow he was too; ‘cute enough, I tell you— sharp as a razor—CLEAR GRIT.”—‘Brother Jonathan’ by John Neal, III, page 386
1843 “If he hadn't a had the CLEAR GRIT in him, and showed his teeth and claws.”—‘Attaché’ by Haliburton, II. i. page 13
1863 “His main deficiency was a lack of GRIT.”—‘Our Old Home’(1883) by Hawthorne, I. 322
Shortly after the appearance of ‘grit,’ TRUE GRIT meaning “unfaltering courage; devotion to what is right; indomitableness; of a solid character” became a common expression in the western United States to define one who is devoted to doing what is right regardless of the danger involved.
“We don’t like to leave a real true grit American . . . among a lot of cowardly Diegos.”—‘The Knickerbocker, 1846.
Note: In the above context the Spanish and Portuguese given name Diego’ is being used as a slur for the Spanish or Mexicans.
In 1969 John Wayne won Academy Award for portraying Rooster Cogburn, the old, one-eyed reprobate, who discovers that he has hidden courage, in the motion picture True Grit and as a result the expression enjoyed a revival in popular use. Upon being diagnosed again with cancer it was reported in Time:
“John Wayne . . . accepted the news with true grit. "‘I've licked the Big C before,’ he said.”
The author is my cousins husband. He is a really nice guy. From- J. Scott Stubblefield
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ReplyDeleteIn reading Catherine Helen's Spence utopian novella A Week in the Future (1888), I came across the phrase grit without the true part, but used in much the same sense.
ReplyDelete"I like Claude Moore, and believe he has far more grit in him than your father or mother can see just now."
Spence was born in Scotland, but immigrated to Australia. She was a pioneer for women's rights in Australia, but is perhaps best known now for her early novel Clara Morrison, set around the time of the Australian gold rush in the 1850s. I don't remember Spence using the word grit in this way in Clara Morrison. I'm now wondering if the terminology would have come over with the American gold miners who came out to Australia in the 1850s.
Interesting, Lindsy. Perhaps we'll ask Portis how he came by the phrase.
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