Banging Someone Out on Their Last Day of of Work

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Grant Barrett.

And I’m Martha Barnette. A few weeks ago, we talked with Sean in New York City about the expression bang out. That’s when you call your boss to say you won’t be coming into work. You bang out sick.

And that prompted a response from British historian Judith Flanders. She told us that in the UK, the expression bang out is used for a traditional practice in the newspaper industry. Retiring journalists are banged out on their last walk out of the newspaper building.

And she sent a video of a journalist being banged out. You see him on his last day of work, and he’s being walked through the massive newspaper building, first through the printing rooms where the workers are banging metal furniture or machinery. As he passes, and then in the newsroom itself, reporters bang their desks.

This tradition apparently started in the press room in the part of the publishing enterprise where the paper was actually printed. In the Dictionary of English Folklore, it points out that not only did they make a lot of noise, but sometimes they would cover the departing worker in printing ink and other sticky substances and maybe pour flour and feathers on them and maybe tie them up in a public place.

And they would take heavy metal things and bang them on each other. And it says they would do it with such a force. It was as if a dozen blacksmiths had gone suddenly crazy. And so all these workers in the press room with these giant printing presses all around just making this huge noise. And those machines on their own already make a giant noise.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, so I love this expression, bang out, to bang out a worker in the UK. I always love these traditions, these bits of hazing for incoming and outgoing workers, or when they move from one part of the profession to another, you know, an apprentice becomes a worker or somebody who’s elevated to a journeyman.

But I also love the language that goes along with that. And I know that we have people listening from around the world who have all these delightful terms to share with us.

We’d love it if you would call us and share not only the language of your profession and the hazings and the rituals that go with it, but the folklore of it too, 877-929-9673, email words@waywordradio.org.

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