# origin of a phrase **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 17, 2000, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-a-phrase/45960 "2000-12-17T01:07:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-a-phrase/45960/1 "2000-12-17T01:07:25Z")
Anybody know where the ‘on the wagon’ , meaning being sober, came from? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-a-phrase/45960/2 "2000-12-17T01:20:57Z")
Earliest cite I can give is 1901, Hegan _Mrs. Wiggs_, “I wanted to git him some whisky, but he shuck his head, ‘I’m on the water-cart,’ sez he.” To be on the water cart or wagon. Can give you a 1902 cite which says “water wagon”. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-a-phrase/45960/3 "2000-12-17T01:25:11Z")
From [This site](http://www.word-detective.com/012000.html) comes: \*…there is a real wagon involved in “off the wagon,” a derivative of “on the wagon,” which since about 1906 has meant to swear off drinking alcohol. The “wagon” in “on the wagon” refers to a fixture of America’s past, the water wagon. Before roads were routinely paved, municipalities would dispatch horse-drawn water wagons to spray the streets in order to prevent the clouds of dust that traffic would otherwise cause. Anyone who had sworn abstinence from alcohol (and would presumably be drinking primarily water from then on) was said to have “climbed aboard the water wagon,” later shortened to “on the wagon.” So to “fall off the wagon” was a logical metaphor for having failed in one’s resolve and having started drinking again.[/ur] I on the other hand, thought it had something to do with the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. Maybe I just made that up in my head… ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-a-phrase/45960/4 "2000-12-17T02:03:06Z")
**Lsura** Thanks for the additional quote. But I wonder at the statement “Before roads were routinely paved, municipalities would dispatch horse-drawn water wagons to spray the streets in order to prevent the clouds of dust that traffic would otherwise cause.” What traffic? I’m not saying that they didn’t use water wagons for such purpose, but what kind of traffic available at the time would raise clouds of dust? This sounds ULish to me. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-a-phrase/45960/5 "2000-12-17T02:07:21Z")
Ya know, I even previewed the other one, dangit. That’s what I get for posting immediately after waking up from a nap. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by samclem \* > What traffic? I’m not saying that they didn’t use water wagons for such purpose, but what kind of traffic available at the time would raise clouds of dust? This sounds ULish to me. I would think that any sort of traffic on dirt roads would raise a cloud of dust, whether it was horse and wagon traffic, or early autos. I have to admit that I’m not sure though. Anyone else know for sure? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-a-phrase/45960/6 "2000-12-17T02:12:12Z")
While I generally respect the Word Detective site, I sometimes wish the would give a cite. ---
**Author:** ![Lissa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-a-phrase/45960/7 "2000-12-17T02:17:00Z")
> [@](#): > > I would think that any sort of traffic on dirt roads would raise a cloud of dust, whether it was horse and wagon traffic, or early autos. I have to admit that I’m not sure though. Anyone else know for sure? In larger cities, you had a LOT of dust from traffic, and there was a lot more traffic that you might think. There were less roads, for one, and so all traffic travelled the same roads, and a wagon or buggy kicks up even more dust than a car from the action of the horses’ hooves and the wheels, and roads, being unpaved got chopped up from the afroesaid hooves and wagon wheels. More traffic, too, since more things were delivered that we now just go to the grocery store for: milk wagons, laundry wagons, ice wagons, mail wagons, peddlers, doctors making house calls, etc. Not to mention fire trucks that were pulled by many horses, beer wagons, delivery wagons, stage coaches . . . And people were no fonder of walking then than they are now, although a trip across town would take more preperation in that you would have to hook up the horse and buggy. So there were a lot of buggies, and single horses chomping up the dirt roads as well. When it rained, roads could become a quagmire very quickly. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2000, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-a-phrase/45960/8 "2000-12-17T21:56:01Z")
Thanks, guys!