I searched the archives and did not find an answer to this.
What is the origin of the phrase, “the whole ball of wax,” meaning a complete and comprehensive package? I saw it in an ad for phone/internet/tv service the other day and it struck me as an odd phrase.
I did some Googling and found some frankly unsatisfying speculation related to 17th-century inheritance law. However, the earliest use of the phrase (according to one source) was in the 1950’s, so this seems pretty unlikely.
Well, World Wide Words repeats the inheritance law origin you saw (and dismisses it) but references a novel titled The Big Ball of Wax (a business satire) published in 1954.
The Word Detective also mentions the inheritance law origin but claims the first usage in print is 1959 and doesn’t become common until the 1960s.
More recent research has found the phrase as early as 1882 and will appear as such in the next edition of the OED.
It does seem to have been a rarely used phrase and had very few cites before the 1950’s. Perhaps the book repopularized it. Those advertising types like to work a phrase into the ground.
Here’s one book withe the exact phrase fromm at least 1902, which kills the 1950’s bit. I found close matches in books that were older. Wax was desired over tallow for candles, used for lubrication, and for waterproofing. In the Odessy a ball of wax was used to stop his mens ears against the Sirens’ song. A book a couple hundred years old mentions a ball of wax as one of six items in a wedding gift. Only one book didn’t refer to wax in a ball, that I searched text in. A ball of wax was a disirable item through out history, so is more likely to mean something like give a man a penny and he’ll want a dime.
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Spenders, by Harry Leon Wilson
Title: The Spenders
A Tale of the Third Generation
Author: Harry Leon Wilson
Illustrated by_ O’NEILL LATHAM
1902
"‘Bring it all,’ I says; ‘I want the hull ball of wax.’
“It does beat all,” he complained later to Billy Brue. “Put a beggar on
horseback and they begin right away to fuss around because the bridle
ain’t set with diamonds–give 'em a little, and they want the whole
ball of wax!”
History of Modern Europe 1792-1878, by C. A. Fyffe
had been taken prisoner, and having been seen to swallow a
ball of wax, in which the order was wrapped up, he was immediately put to
death and the paper taken out of his stomach." Eden, Jan., 1797;
Thanks - those older sites attest that the saying was alive in some form for a period much earlier than the 1950’s, which is more than what I found. I there any thoery regarding how the phrase evolved from its literal meaning (the Fyffe quote), to mean ‘everything’ as in the 1902 Latham quote?
I would expect it to be at least a few hundred years old because of variations I found in older books. I gave you the book with the exact phrase. I spent about 30 minutes searching, so a more intensive search will likely trace back farther. I will search a bit more, but I won’t garanty further findings on my part.
Thanks HD. I just meant that the quote you gave from 1797 referred to a literal ball of wax. I’m just curious how the phrase came to have its current idiomatic meaning, as used in your cite from 1902. It’s not at all an obvious progression of meaning.
In that a ball of wax had a high value at one time so that no poor chap could afford to have much, it was a highly utilitarian luxury item. Today you might offer a person beer at a picnic and find the cooler empty when you go to get one. A ball of wax was something very useful and being kind enough to offer a piece for someone’s use, you may have found they wouldn’t be happy with what they needed, but wanted the whole ball of wax. Women waxed their thread and needles, carpenters hinges and nails, shoemakers leather shoes. I don’t have any direct definative source and doubt one exits. As more data comes in you can extrapulate a likely source, but a document crediting a Saxon knight with uttering the phrase is unlikely.
Okay, I get you now. You need wax, somebody offers you a bit … but no! You want the whole ball of wax! And we have a cite of the idiom being used (as opposed to the literal meaning) at least as early as 1902, although it seems to have not really taken off until the 1950s.
