Historical Anachronism

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Yes, good afternoon.

Hi, who’s this?

This is Julio Tierno. I’m calling from Indianapolis, Indiana.

Welcome to the program, Julio.

Hi, Julio.

Thank you, Martha. Thank you, Grant.

You have an extraordinary accent. Can you tell us where you’re from?

Originally, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

There’s something fantastic. I’m loving the sound of you, Julio. Talk some more.

Thank you.

Well, short ago I was listening to one of the episodes of the TV series, Downtown Abbey on PBS.

Sure.

And one of the characters, Robert Lord Granton, uses the expression, blow a gasket, meaning becoming raged or be angry or upset.

Now, for all I understand, the action takes place around 1922.

So my question is, was the expression used in that sense as early as that?

You mean metaphorically, not an actual gasket then.

Exactly. That is correct.

Probably it did exist for engines at the time.

Right.

I personally think of blowing a gasket in reference to a car engine.

But then gaskets are used in many, if not all, compression engines.

Who may be the expression is prior to the appearance of the automobile.

And I also have a side question.

Did that expression originate in the United States or in Great Britain?

Oh, that’s a good question.

I think you’ve busted them, though.

I think the metaphorical sense of blow a gasket didn’t start showing up until the 1940s, World War II.

The Downton Abbey folks are pretty careful, but they’re not doing a linguistic history show, so they don’t have to be exactly right.

But you’re right. It’s an anachronism.

All the authorities show it doesn’t show up in print until the 1940s.

It came out of the, and this answers maybe your second question, it probably came out of the linguistic cauldron known as World War II, when all these English speakers from around the world were working together and kind of co-mingling their languages.

Okay, so this is what I thought.

Anachronism is the word you just used, Grant, and I think it was correct.

I’m glad what I had in mind.

I said, I don’t think that was a common expression at that time.

Well, a lot of people like you have fun playing gotcha with Downton Abbey.

There are a lot of examples of that online.

But, you know, I have to say that the breaches of history that they’ve got, where clearly there was an accident with a time machine, are kind of rare.

They really nail some stuff very well.

They get the mood of the era, I think, perfectly.

I think just the spirit of people’s attitudes and all the differing opinions of what was happening on the international stage, they just got it exactly right.

The tone is just perfect.

And the language helps.

Yeah, the language does help, yeah.

So if they have to use an anachronism to further the plot, I’m kind of fine with that, as long as it’s not too crazy.

Okay, so we’re not going to put any blame on them.

As long as the dowager’s not wielding an iPhone, I think we’re fine.

Okay.

Julio, thank you so much for calling.

It’s nice to hear from you.

Thank you, Martha.

Thank you, Grant.

It’s been great talking with you.

Ciao, Julio.

You have a good day.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

The earliest use that I can find of blow a gasket, used metaphorically, is 1944.

Do you remember the humorist H. Alan Smith?

He wrote a book called Lost in Horse Latitudes about his eight months writing.

He wrote for eight months.

He worked for Paramount Pictures as a screenplay writer, and apparently it was a giant tobacco.

And even today, it holds up remarkably well.

And he talks about an actress blowing a gasket when she found that she wasn’t mentioned in a will.

But, you know, Hulu had something else to say.

Talking about compression engines, it’s true.

In the 1880s, you could talk about a steam engine blowing a gasket.

Right, right.

But you probably said that the gasket blew out.

Right, on steamships.

Yeah.

Yeah.

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