# Twain's use of 'hard-boiled' **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 28, 2007, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twains-use-of-hard-boiled/420800 "2007-09-28T13:13:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Steve\_Sullivan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Steve\_Sullivan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Sullivan)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2007, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twains-use-of-hard-boiled/420800/1 "2007-09-28T13:13:39Z")
The essay by your staff member Gfactor on the origin of ‘hard-boiled’ (excerpted below) was fascinating, especially in its reference to an essay by Mark Twain (whom I have adored all my life) as its first identified appearance. But I must disagree with your definition of Twain’s use of the phrase as meaning ‘cheap’ or ‘petty.’ In the context of that passage you quoted - “a hundred million tons of A-number-one fourth-proof, hard-boiled, hide-bound grammar” - its inclusion in a string of descriptive phrases having in common a sense of ‘sturdily built’ or ‘high quality’ seems clearly to indicate Twain is using it in that later sense you mentioned, ‘hard to beat.’ Steve Sullivan Port Jefferson Station, NY The Oxford English Dictionary locates its earliest appearance in an essay by Mark Twain, written in 1886 for delivery as a speech, in which he defends Ulysses Grant’s use of English: What do we care for grammar when we think of those thunderous phrases, “Unconditional and immediate surrender,” “I propose to move immediately upon your works,” “I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.” [Critic Matthew Arnold] would doubtless claim that that last phrase is not strictly grammatical, and yet it did certainly wake up this nation as a hundred million tons of A-number-one fourth-proof, hard-boiled, hide-bound grammar from another mouth could not have done. …Through a series of examples he [etymologist Peter Tamony] traces the evolution of the phrase’s meaning from “cheap” or “petty” (the sense in which Twain had used it), which is where it stood circa 1917, toward something more like “hard, shrewd, keen.” Somewhere along the way, the egg part got dropped, but that’s obviously the key to the phrase’s origin. Tamony relates an old joke in which a hard-boiled egg is described as something that’s “hard to beat,” a pun that relies in part on its reference to a cheap person – i.e., someone who drives a hard bargain. It’s not much of a jump from “tough to take advantage of” to just plain tough… ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2007, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twains-use-of-hard-boiled/420800/2 "2007-09-28T13:32:26Z")
Hi Steve. Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Board. It’s customary here to include a link to the staff report in question. Allow me: [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhardboiled.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhardboiled.html) ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twains-use-of-hard-boiled/420800/3 "2007-09-29T00:52:52Z")
Nice catch, **Steve.** I am inclined to agree with you about Twain’s meaning of _hard-boiled_ being positive as it was used. The egg allusion also might offer the connotation of something _set and unchanging_ to the mix. Welcome to the SDMB. You will find many lovers of the language here. Some are already raising eyebrows at my use of _allusion_. ---
**Author:** ![BJMoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/5fc32e/32.png) [@BJMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BJMoose)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twains-use-of-hard-boiled/420800/4 "2007-09-29T14:59:37Z")
My reading of Twain’s use of hard-boiled is that it has the sense of “thoroughly cooked” - thus he is talking about grammer that is quite thoroughly worked through, “well done”, if you will. But what catches my eye is his use of “hide-bound”. Nowadays it means dyed-in-the-wool, stuck in the mud, etc. His intent here is something different; and given his familiarity with the printing industry, I’m sure the term had a very specific meaning for him. But I’m not sure what. Was hide-bound merely a synonym for leather-bound, and thus suggesting high quality, or was a hide binding rather less than a leather binding? At any rate, his understanding of the term obviously was different from the contemporary meaning. But rather than hijack this thread, I would suggest that **Gfactor** has here a subject for another report. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twains-use-of-hard-boiled/420800/5 "2007-09-29T15:17:24Z")
> [@](#): > > 1 of a domestic animal : having a dry skin lacking in pliancy and adhering closely to the underlying flesh > 2 : having an inflexible or ultraconservative character [http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=hidebound](http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=hidebound) The way I understood it, Twain was going on about how someone who used strict grammar, which he says is hide-bound (inflexible, conservative, tight) would not create phrases like the ones he quotes earlier in the paragraph: > [@](#): > > There is that about the sun which makes us forget his spots, and when we think of General Grant our pulses quicken and his grammar vanishes; we only remember that this is the simple soldier who, all untaught of the silken phrase-makers, linked words together with an art surpassing the art of the schools and put into them a something which will still bring to American ears, as long as America shall last, the roll of his vanished drums and the tread of his marching hosts. What do we care for grammar when we think of those thunderous phrases, “Unconditional and immediate surrender,” “I propose to move immediately upon your works,” “I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.” Mr. Arnold would doubtless claim that that last phrase is not strictly grammatical, and yet it did certainly wake up this nation In this context, hide-bound is an excellent metaphor because he’s pointing out that, in some cases grammar can hold us back, restrict our motion as it were, like an overtight hide, especially if we are pedantic about it. ---
**Author:** ![Steve33](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f6c823/32.png) [@Steve33](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve33)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twains-use-of-hard-boiled/420800/6 "2007-09-29T18:19:02Z")
[QUOTE=Gfactor] [http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=hidebound](http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=hidebound) The way I understood it, Twain was going on about how someone who used strict grammar, which he says is hide-bound (inflexible, conservative, tight) would not create phrases like the ones he quotes earlier in the paragraph: In this context, hide-bound is an excellent metaphor because he’s pointing out that, in some cases grammar can hold us back, restrict our motion as it were, like an overtight hide, especially if we are pedantic about it. [/QUOTE] The term “hide bound” reminds me that leather was boiled to make it harder and inflexable, most often for helmets. I have a very old hockey helmet made of boiled leather, I have seen older firemen’s helmets and cycling helmets made the same way. Boiled leather would have been a commonly understood connotation in Twain’s era. It may be a reference to boiled eggs, but it’s not really clear enough to be certain. I’m personally more inclined to my leather theory. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twains-use-of-hard-boiled/420800/7 "2007-09-29T19:04:12Z")
[QUOTE=Steve33] It may be a reference to boiled eggs, but it’s not really clear enough to be certain. I’m personally more inclined to my leather theory. [/QUOTE] You may be right. It’s hard to tell, from this reference. There are, however, several other references from about the same time that include “egg” after hard-boiled. And while Twain’s might be the first written example, the phrase was probably used in speech before Twain used it. Was Twain shortening this phrase or was he describing the leather? I doubt that’s a question that can be answered for certain. > [@](#): > > The OED says: > > 1. Hardened, callous; hard-headed, shrewd. orig. U.S. Hence, of measures, practical. > 1886 ‘MARK TWAIN’ Speeches (1923) 137 Hard-boiled, hide-bound grammar. 1915 in Amer. Speech (1937) 260 Hard boiled egg who wouldn’t bid 90 on 100 aces. 1919 in F. A. Pottle Stretchers (1930) 354 We are too hard-boiled to make much of a demonstration. Ibid. 358 Two hardboiled Irish sergeants are terrorizing the barrack. 1926 Publishers’ Weekly 10 July 120/1 Stone..being hard-boiled, waited a few days to notice any appreciable increase in sales. 1926 Ladies’ Home Jrnl. 26 Aug., The hard-boiled cynic has a shell it [sc. satire] can never penetrate. 1928 Weekly Dispatch 3 June 10/3 From its obscure beginning down in the ‘tough’ section of New York, up through the ‘hard-boiled’ wards of the great city, into municipal politics and thence into the Governor’s chair. 1929 A. CONAN DOYLE Maracot Deep vi. 153 The hard-boiled Scanlan actually fell down in a faint. 1931 BUCK & ANTHONY Bring 'Em Back Alive 163 It is all a hard-boiled proposition of not treading on the other fellow’s feet for fear he may rise up and poke his big toe in your eye. 1932 E. WILSON Devil take Hindmost viii. 80 That man of iron..a drastic-minded and hard-boiled Dane. Ibid. 82 There is a Detroit type which..has some of the energy and hard-boiled bluffness of the Chicagoans. 1934 Archit. Rev. LXXV. 116/2 Yet those old houses are safe and kind and probably better employed in modifying some hard-boiled business man’s mentality. 1942 Mind LI. 274 It certainly is difficult to remain a stoic or a cynic, to be ‘hard-boiled’, for a long time. 1959 Encounter Sept. 62/2 The disregard of truth in favour of hard-boiled scientific ideals. 1968 Times 27 Sept. 2/3 Mr. Heath’s hard-boiled image is beginning to crack. In support of your boiled leather theory, I offer the OED for hard-boiled as applied to clothing: > [@](#): > > 1. Of articles of clothing: stiff, hard. U.S. > 1903 A. ADAMS Log of Cowboy ix. 58 That fellow in front of the drug store over there with the hard boiled hat on. 1919 S. LEWIS Free Air 86 To Claire, traveling men were merely commercial persons in hard-boiled suits. and also note that Twain’s example is sort of isolated. As I noted, most of the other early references are to _hard-boiled egg_. You could argue that Twain’s usage wasn’t related to the current usage. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2007, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twains-use-of-hard-boiled/420800/8 "2007-09-29T23:50:22Z")
Well, I got interested in following up on this, and tonight I have the time. **hard-boiled** , as an adjective(not applying to eggs), seems to appear, before 1900, in print in US papers more that you would expect from the OED cites. You have to remember that the OED cites for A-H were usually done prior to 1989, when searching was done in the old fashioned way, not by electronic databases possible with today’s technology. And, the OED qutie often uses only one or two cites/century. That’s what they have to do with as many cites as they sometimes have. Using my Newspaperarchive database, I found the following: > [@](#): > > 1892–They had undergone the new experience of a prolonged trip > and strange water, with nine hard-boiled innings each afternoon for three days(ed.-talking about a baseball team) > [@](#): > > 1897-In this North American republic, such an outrage, I presume, corresponds with the dog, cock and prize flght mania, but the most hard-boiled tyrant of the great semi barbarian European empire would blush > that the like should be perpetrated in the dungeons of his domain. > [@](#): > > 1891–There are in the Italian colony many gentlemen of education and refinement, but the great bulk of the immigrants are of a tvpe that would have made Christopher Columbus turn back, if he had any suspicion > that America was to be overrun by such hard-boiled citizens. > [@](#): > > 1887–A Texas country paper announces: “The editor put on his hard-boiled shirt and scissor-tailed coat, and split the wind for Dallas Tuesday.” > [@](#): > > 1893–(ed-Talking about the languages heard at the Chicago’s World’s Fair)All he then needed during a day’s ramble was half a dozen Indian and cow boy dialects, little picturesque Algerian- French, a good supply of strong English > adjectives for the bombardment of the pumpkin-headed guards, some > hard-boiled German sentences interlarded by platt-Deutsch for the Hamburgers > and an assortment of choice Greek roots for the Hellenic gentleman. You guys take it from here. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twains-use-of-hard-boiled/420800/9 "2007-10-01T01:54:55Z")
I suppose research by **samclem** on a reference to Twain would be quite hard to beat! 😃 I’ll make one observation here, with no supporting cite (though I’m sure some can easily be found): There was a custom during the 19th Century of boiling a dress shirt, and references to someone wearing (or figuratively being) a “boiled shirt” seemed fairly common. My impression is an attitude combining pomposity and cheapness is implied. I believe but am not certain that at least a few such references used “hard-boiled shirt.” Perhaps that less-than-valuable comment will help lead those with better searching resources to more useful references. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2007, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twains-use-of-hard-boiled/420800/10 "2007-10-01T04:43:24Z")
I still see references to “boiled wool” as a common fabric in suits and dresses. Now that I know that boiling leather was a common practice for making leather hard, the “hard-boiled, hide-bound grammar” makes much more sense. I had forgotten that _grammar_ was often used as a substitute for “English language grammar textbook.” ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2007, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/twains-use-of-hard-boiled/420800/11 "2007-10-04T03:47:58Z")
I just spotted a contemporary use of “hard-boiled” that completes this circle nicely. It’s in Dorothy Parker’s 1931 review of Dashiell Hammett’s _The Glass Key_. > [@](#): > > It is true that he is so hard-boiled you could roll him on the White House lawn.