# What is the most commonly used phrase in English that came from a movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [December 2, 2024, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068 "2024-12-02T16:37:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 158
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2024, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068/158 "2024-12-11T20:01:49Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > “Meanwhile back at the ranch” has to be from silent days. I thought of suggesting that one, but then figured it originated from some book. I don’t actually know the first use; it could be either. Googling, I find an old SDMB thread about the origin. There, @delphica reports on it being in a Zane Grey novel published in 1912. > [@Origin of "Meanwhile, back at the ranch"](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-meanwhile-back-at-the-ranch/160419/14): > > “Meantime, back at the ranch…” is actually used to start a chapter in Zane Grey’s Riders of the Purple Sage, and this was a serial story that first ran in 1912. Wikipedia has a page on the phrase. They say there’s no known silent movie that has the phrase as an intertitle. > **[Meanwhile, back at the ranch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meanwhile,_back_at_the_ranch)** > > "Meanwhile, back at the ranch..." is a catch phrase that appears in a variety of contexts. For example, it may be employed by narrators of American cowboy movies and TV shows to indicate a segue from one scene to another but there is often more to this than meets the eye. The expression may have originated as a stock intertitle in the silent movies and at first the reference to the ranch was literal, but this may be apocryphal as no known film actually has this intertitle. Later, as t "Meanwhile,... --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-most-commonly-used-phrase-in-english-that-came-from-a-movie/1011068)._