# Red Tape - Origin???

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-tape-origin/104456>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 19, 2002, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-tape-origin/104456 "2002-04-19T02:59:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-tape-origin/104456/1 "2002-04-19T02:59:55Z")

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What is the origin of “red tape”, and how has it come to equate to a universal description of bureaucracy?

- Jinx

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**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-tape-origin/104456/2 "2002-04-19T03:08:57Z")

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If memory serves, lawmakers in the 1700s (or their clerks) would roll up documents, and secure the rolls with ribbons. Different colors may have had varying significance. Red stands out, so no doubt was it was used for important papers. Red ribbons all over the place naturally leads to “red tape” as a reference to bureaucracy in action.

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**Author:** ![Motog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85e7bf/32.png) [@Motog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motog)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-tape-origin/104456/3 "2002-04-19T03:18:44Z")

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Easy one:

> [@](#):
>
> Red tape “excessive bureaucratic rigmarole” first attested 1736, in allusion to the red tape formerly used in Great Britain for binding up legal and other official documents.

[http://www.geocities.com/etymonline/r1etym.htm](http://www.geocities.com/etymonline/r1etym.htm)

Merriam-Webster gives the same derivation:

> [@](#):
>
> Main Entry: red tape  
> Function: noun  
> Etymology: from the red tape formerly used to bind legal documents in England  
> Date: 1736  
> : official routine or procedure marked by excessive complexity which results in delay or inaction

> **[Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: America's most-trusted online dictionary](https://www.merriam-webster.com/)**
>
> The dictionary by Merriam-Webster is America's most trusted online dictionary for English word definitions, meanings, and pronunciation. #wordsmatter

The jump from that to the general usage is pretty straightforward

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**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\
**Post date:** [April 19, 2002, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/red-tape-origin/104456/4 "2002-04-19T05:25:43Z")

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Never mind the past tense. I have plenty of actual red tape around files on my desk right this very moment.

Only it’s kind of purplish really. But red enough to leave no doubt about the origin of the term.