The title says it all. Does anyone know the origin of the phrase “Ready, willing, and able?” I’ve heard it used in military situations, but I am trying to track down the origin (assuming it is known).
Any help? Thanks in advance.
Not a lot of info on when it originated. My rather good reference library and word sites are silent.
I just found an 1825 cite in a US newspaper. That’s the best so far. I’ll look some more.
BTW, it was an article about the military, kinda. Aids who were “ready and willing and able” to help.
I’ve not seen it in the military context. I’m familiar with it in legal contexts. It’s a phrase used in legal pleadings to indicate someone is ready to carry out a contract. Don’t have a cite for it, however.
Suppose A agrees to provide services (e.g. - construct a brick wall) to B for $100. A goes out and buys all the bricks and mortar, and maybe passes on some other job of work that C offers him, because he’s got the contract with B. He turns up and B tells him not to build the wall, and says that he won’t pay A the $100.
If A sues for the loss he’s incurred by buying the supplies and the lost opportunity with C, he has to plead that the only reason he didn’t carry out the job with B was because B reneged on the deal. So A’s pleading states that he was “ready, willing and able” to carry out the job for B - i.e. - that it was B who broke the contract, not him.
A member of the American Dialect Society found an 1813 cite. And, as Northern Piper correctly said, it comes from the legal world. I wouldn’t be surprised to find it in British English first.
Could you all provide sources for these claims? I’m looking into the origin of the term as well and have fount next to nothing. If you could provide either links or the titles of the works you found that would be fantastically helpful to me.
Also, the earliest I found the term used was in 1716 here (on page 5). I didn’t read through the whole document so I’m not sure about the context.