Heidi Learned Today That ... (A Recurring Post)

I decided that every so often I will post whatever new thing I learn (which will probably be mostly new words or new phrases) and share my expanding vocabulary and outlook with you, my dear friends.

My first entry: The origin of the phrase “fall off the wagon”:

I heard this phrase uttered in an episode of my favorite sitcom of all time, “Friends” – that episode where Monica’s recovering alcoholic-boyfriend is trying to break up with her, but before he can get to the words, she, thinking he was actually confessing to having had a drink, exclaims, “Oh no, you’ve fallen off the wagon!” Been using it ever since to refer to any relapse – that is, if you quit smoking and relapse, you’ve “fallen off the wagon”; if you’re a recovering alcoholic and relapse, you’ve “fallen off the wagon”; if you’ve tried to turn over a new leaf and be kinder to people in general (as the Dame did) and relapse, you’ve “fallen off the wagon”; etc., etc., etc…

Only the second, however, is the correct usage of the phrase.

From “The Phrase Finder” (a really neat site!), I found this:

“The original version of this expression 'on the water wagon' or 'water cart,' which isn't heard anymore, best explains the phrase. During the late 19th century, water carts drawn by horses wet down dusty roads in the summer. At the height of the Prohibition crusade in the 1890s men who vowed to stop drinking would say that they were thirsty indeed but would rather climb aboard the water cart to get a drink than break their pledges. From this sentiment came the expression 'I'm on the water cart,' I'm trying to stop drinking, which is first recorded in, of all places, Alice Caldwell Rice's 'Mrs. Wiggs of the Caggage Patch' (1901), where the consumptive Mr. Dick says it to old Mrs. Wiggs. The more alliterative 'wagon' soon replaced cart in the expression and it was eventually shortened to 'on the wagon.' 'Fall off the (water) wagon' made its entry into the language almost immediately after its abstinent sister." From the "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997).”

Interesting, no? And so now we know. And can use the phrase. Correctly …