Q&A: The origin of ‘keeping your powder dry’

Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, it's powder-coated…

Q: Hi AWC, what’s the origin of the phrase “to keep your powder dry”?

A: Good question. Any guesses?

Q: Maybe it’s from the days when people wore wigs and powdered their faces? Or maybe it’s from weightlifting or rockclimbing? They’d want to keep their powder dry or else they’d slip!

A: Not bad, but not correct. For starters, let’s look at what this idiom means. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it as “to be calm and ready for a possible problem in the future” while Cambridge Dictionary goes with “to wait before taking action, but be ready to take action if it is necessary.”

Q: Ohhh, is it baking powder? Dry ingredients in bread!

A: A nice thought, but that’s not right either.

Q: Dough!

A: Haha, indeed.

Q: Just hurry up and tell me please. I’m like a powder keg that’s about to explode!

A: Bingo. There’s your powder right there.

Q: Where? In a powder keg? Isn’t that to do with beer?

A: No! A “powder keg” is a barrel of gunpowder!

Q: Oooooh, yeah that does make more sense. 

A: While we’re talking about powder kegs, these small barrels filled with gunpowder have been named as such since the 1820s. However, it would take until the 1890s for the “powder keg” to become its explosive and figurative self – meaning any situation that might easily explode.

Q: I forgot that kegs can hold other things…

A: Yeah, the word “keg” came to English in the 1600s from the Norse “kaggi” meaning “cask”. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, it didn’t become associated with a half-barrel of beer until 1945 – and the term “kegger” was in use by 1969, for a student party with a keg of beer.

Q: Party on dude! Burrrrrrrp.

A: Quite.

Q: So back to my original question – the powder we were trying to keep dry is ‘gunpowder’?

A: It sure is. Gunpowder was around a full two centuries before the powdered cosmetics of the late 16th century and beyond. 

Q: And the phrase itself?

A: It’s typically attributed to Oliver Cromwell – the righteous politician and military man who had a hand in sending England into a constitutional and monarchy crisis in the 1640s. He also invaded Ireland, telling his troops to “Trust in God and keep your powder dry” in reference to loading their muskets with gunpowder. You see, wet gunpowder just doesn’t work very well.

Q: And Ireland can get quite rainy.

A: Indeed.

Q: So the phrase has actually been around for almost 400 years?

A: Yes and no. While it’s well documented that he said it, the phrase didn’t pop up again in print until 1834. And took until later still to evolve into today’s figurative term that has nothing to do with invading potato-growing nations.

Q: So keeping one’s powder dry is a kind of strategic “wait and see”?

A: Yep. If you’re familiar with the Hamilton musical (or American history), Aaron Burr was a politician who liked to keep his powder dry – waiting to see “which way the wind will blow” before making his opinions known. This “standing for nothing” stance likely cost him the US election of 1800. (“Jefferson has beliefs; Burr has none.”)

Q: Are you finished with the Hamilton references now?

A: Burr just wanted to be in the powder room where it happens…

Q: Haha. Actually, that’s another one – WHY is it called a “powder room”? It’s the dunny, yeah?

A: Actually, back in the 1600s, the powder room was where you stored the gunpowder on a ship. But yes, the one you’re talking about got its name in the 1930s specifically for the ladies bathroom. It is of course where a woman might have gone to “powder her nose”.

Q: Drugs?

A: No! A euphemism for using the bathroom. Of course, some may also have powdered their noses too. The term “powder room” is sometimes still used today, but typically either ironically or with reference to its old-fashioned charm.

Q: Any other powder facts?

A: Well, another now-phrase – “Take a powder!” – dates back to the 1920s. It meant to depart or leave in a hurry, likely from the language doctors often used in prescribing medicinal powders to fix an ailment quickly. You’ll still find it listed in dictionaries today, although anyone under 50 may struggle to understand it!

Q: And speaking of people under 50, seeing as we were recently discussing band name origins, can you shed light on Aussie band “Powderfinger”?

A: Of course! The first part is simple. The band took its name from a 1974 Neil Young song called, you guessed it, Powderfinger. As for what THAT meant, well, the song is a little vague but likely means someone being trigger-happy with their gun. So yes, we’re back to gunpowder once more!

Q: The gunpowder plot thickens!

A:  The 1600s have featured a lot today – the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 being a famous event in British history when a dude named Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament. It’s marked each year with fireworks on November 5th in Britain and to a lesser extent in Canada, New Zealand and South Africa.

Q: But not Australia?

A: This is where we need to ask the over-50s to come back into the room and recall when Australia DID once celebrate fireworks night. But because Aussies can’t have nice things, a series of accidents and reckless behaviour saw the practice banned by the 1980s.

Q: Wow. So Australia got sick of keeping their powder dry and simply banned the powder instead.

A: That’s right. All our kegs are now filled only with beer.

Q: What a meandering and fun conversation! Time to go?

A: Let’s take a powder!

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