“High-Grading” Started with Miners Pocketing Choice Ore

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Megan from Tallahassee, Florida. How are you?

Hi, Megan. How are you doing?

Doing well. What’s going on, Megan?

Well, I have a question about a phrase that I grew up with.

The phrase is to high-grade, and we’d use it, so my sister and I, if we were sharing a bag of trail mix,

And she was picking out all the M&Ms, I would say, stop high-grading all the M&Ms,

As in to take out the good stuff.

And so my question is, where does that come from?

Because I grew up thinking it was normal.

And then once I grew up, I found out it wasn’t.

To use high-grade meaning to steal.

Where did you pick that up, Megan?

Not necessarily to steal, but to take the good stuff out of something.

Okay.

Take the best ones.

Take the best.

Right.

And any idea where you might have picked that up?

So my parents used it.

And I just grew up with it as a normal phrase than I thought it was.

And it wasn’t until I went off to college and used it around my boyfriend’s family that everybody turned and looked at me and said, what did you just say?

Are your parents gemologists?

Both of my parents are science educators.

And so I have a little bit more to add to my story, which is I’m a biologist.

And when I was an undergrad, I was taking a class which included some forestry.

And so I learned forestry, or at least in forestry, they use the term to high grade us and to like go in and take out all the big trees right before, say, land is sold or something like that.

And my grandfather on my mom’s side was a forester, so I thought that that’s where it came from.

But when I asked my mom, she said that it was actually a phrase more that my dad brought into the family.

Was your dad by any chance from the western part of the United States?

Oh, yeah. So I grew up in Oregon.

Okay. Bingo. That makes sense. Because the idea of high grade comes from the mining industry in the early 1900s and the idea of going into a mine. I mean, it’s basically gold miners stealing from their employers, going into a mine and sort of picking out some of the very best stuff and maybe just sort of tucking it in your pocket or your lunch pail or some handy orifice and walking out.

I mean, it’s sort of like those stories you hear of people building entire cars by…

Oh, the song.

I built it one piece at a time.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

So the idea is you take out the high-grade ore, you take out the best stuff,

You just take a little bit, you know, from your employer for yourself.

Because you’ve got this vein of precious metal right in front of you.

It doesn’t require a lot of refining.

You know, you’re not going to have to put this in giant machinery, right?

Right.

Knock off a few pieces, pocket it, get a little bonus.

Right.

Or you’re down there doing awful, dirty, sweaty work,

And you happen to see a new vein of ore that nobody else has seen,

And you just kind of keep going back to that and taking the high grade.

So, Megan, your sister was picking out the M&Ms and leaving behind, like, the flakes of junk?

You know, like the Cheerios and the peanuts.

Oh, the Cheerios. Yeah, those are low grade.

I often high grade mixed nuts.

I go for the Brazil nuts, which a lot of people don’t like, but, ooh, yum, yum.

Oh, you can have them.

I’ll take all the Brazil nuts.

I was going to say, we should eat nuts together because I hate Brazil nuts.

There we go.

I knew we were compatible.

So, hi, Grating.

I love the idea that this word trickled into your family and you’re not quite sure where it came from.

You said your parents are science educators.

What kind of science?

General natural history and biology.

Okay.

So, my dad grew up in Oregon and definitely had a lot of background in general, I don’t know, mining or forestry.

He didn’t really work in those industries, but was around them.

I could see how this word, this verb, high grade as a verb would just be in the ether

And be something that your family would pick up in this community that has a lot of loggers and miners.

Yeah.

I sure never heard it until recently.

It’s a great word.

It’s perfect for use all the time.

I think people should use it more.

Yeah.

Don’t let your boyfriend scare you off of it.

You should keep your oddities of speech.

I’m not with him anymore.

Oh.

There we go.

You’re going for a higher grade of guy or what?

I’ve been high grading with fellows.

I see.

Great. Hey, Megan, thanks a lot for calling.

Okay, thank you very much.

Take care now. Bye-bye.

It’s great to know the real story.

Now you have it.

Take care.

Okay, bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

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