I was thinking about this phrase today. I hear it a lot, but its meaning isn’t abundantly clear. What kind of hole? Very often, the phrase just indicates that someone is lighting/about to light/about to detonate explosives, so it’s not necessarily even a “fire”
Wikipedia ( Fire in the hole - Wikipedia ) is ambivalent, claiming that it originated with miners setting off explosives in mines AND that originated in the Navy, where “in the hole” meant under the cdeck (wouldn’t that be “Fire in the Hold?”)
Does anybody have more definite information (or a more likely candidate)?
I think Wiki is full of it. I’ve always figured (and heard) that it meant that the flame had been applied to the touch-hole of a cannon. The fire is in the hole, and the cannon was going to fire in an instant.
Although a quick search shows a number of references to mining.
Silencus’ post is possibly right, but I also instantly thought of how charges are placed at the bottom of a “hole” drilled into rock when blasting for mining, earth moving, etc.
When the fuse was lit (back before electrically activated explosives) it would go down “the hole”… hence “fire in the hole”…
Just guessing tho…
regards
FML
Thats rather useless in answering the GQ question.
I always connected the phrase with mining and not a cannon, but it’s reasonable to link it with a cannon too. Going with the setting off of explosives in a mine, I have to wonder if the connection with mining didn’t stem from the phrase being in use for coal gas exploding originally. Fire in the hole being a phrase originally referring to coal gas exploding, then being applied as a warning to man placed explosives in a mine. This is not backed by fact, but I think it’s an avenue for research.
It makes more sense in the mining context, when there’s a chance while the fuse burns for others “in the hole” to run or brace themselves or at least prepare for a shower of debris. I don’t think there’s much time for anything once you’ve lit the fuse on a cannon.
I once read on a cereal box (no kidding) that the cannoneer’s cry was “'Ware Before!,” which was eventually abbreviated to “fore” and fell into common use on golf courses. Take that for what you will.
No, but it’s fine. It’s witty, and the sort of smart-ass comment I expect on the Board.
Thanks, all.
Eh, it could easily enough be a warning one would call just before the cannon fuse was lit, giving the cannons crew enough time to jump back and avoid any recoil. Such recoils were a fairly frequent source of injury/death aboard early cannon-armed naval ships.
Couldn’t find any sources by googling, just a lot of people guessing. FWIW, the guessing seems more or less evenly split between the mining and cannon firing explanations already mentioned here.
Ah, actually, did a google book search and found this from 1814 from a US navy captain:
It’s a little hard to figure out what “port-fire in the hole” is, but apparently its some sort of explosive found on a naval vessel, and the juxtaposition with “slow match” (which is used to light cannon fuses) makes me think that the cannon explanation is correct.
Didn’t have time to see if there was any earlier instances turned up by that search as I’m late for work, but I’ll look a little more later in the day.
The passage you’re quoting there only contains the phrase ‘fire in the hole’ coincidentally.
It’s talking about putting a slow fuse, or a piece of port-fire (a kind of lighting taper) into the hole in the head of a barrel
When I first heard this phrase, I thought that was what was being said, because the times I saw it being used (on shows like Six Million Dollar Man or The A-Team) seemed to be always on a ship.
It has always made me think, at the back of my mind, that that is the original phrase, and it’s gotten twisted ever since.
But I’m not too good at that kind of etymological guesswork, so I wouldn’t listen to me.
Ah, you’re right. What’s a “port fire” though?
Anyhoo, most of the other references seem to be from mining in the second half of the 19th century. One is a court case from 1785
but the text isn’t available for preview on google books, and the publication dates for at least some of the other texts in the search result are obviously wrong. I’m not sure how much mining there was in Kentcky in 1785, or whether they even had a court of appeals at that early date (before statehood, though I guess they would’ve had a court system as a territory), so I’m suspicious that this isn’t incorrectly dated as well. Perhaps someone has access to a law library and can check?
Its the last result here
Flipped through the rest of the google book results. Since Mangetout shot down my earlier example, I can’t find a single instance of “fire in the hole” being used in the sense of firing a cannon, while there are several 19th century (and the one possible 18th century, though I’m still skeptical of the date on that) references to it being a warning yelled by miners before detonating explosives.
So I’d say the most likely scenario is that it originated in mining during the 19th century and then later transfered to the 20th century military use of a warning yelled before blowing up an enemy bunker.
It’s a special kind of splint or taper - resistant to blowing out or flaring up and burning away. Fireworks technicians still use a version of them today.
http://www.galaxy-fireworks.co.uk/Fireworks.asp?ID=SP5
I’ve only ever heard or understood the term to relate to mining - in a historical context, that is - I know it’s not uncommon to hear it in more modern contexts (such as in movies) in connection with firing a cannon, but FWIW, this just doesn’t ring true for me - if for no other reason than I don’t think the fuse hole of a cannon was commonly called ‘The Hole’ as a distinct term, whereas this term certainly has been used to describe mines.
According to an unverified source, the phrase was borrowed by US soldiers in Vietnam.
The discovery of a hidden bunker in a raid on a Vietcong village would call for a grenade to be despatched into it. When so doing, the soldier would shout Fire in the hole to inform his colleagues of his action.
Is this true?
I suggest looking for origins in the oil & gas drilling industry.
That seems like a red herring to me. Mining with explosives is a far older industry and how common are in-hole fires in oil and gas drilling? Common enough to have given rise to a specific term? Doesn’t seem likely.
Do you have an earliest date of usage for the term? Circa 1860 relates to the oil biz in Pennsylvania, where fracking is still done that way.No, it’s hard to find any early reference to the phrase. Are you saying you have a c1860 cite for the usage? Or just a c1860 cite for the use of explosives in oil drilling?
But it was not clear from your previous post that you were talking about the deliberate setting of explosive charges - I thought you were talking about accidental fires - and it was this idea I thought doubtful.
Not sure how far back the phrase goes but oil wells were blown using squibs of nitro or dynamite. That would only go back roughly the turn of the century. I have a stereoview somewhere showing the process.