Kathy from Wichita, Kansas, says her mother was a practical joker who’d laugh off her pranks by saying That’s just the kind of hairpin I am, which means “That’s just the way I am.” The phrase goes back at least to 1874. In his 1889 volume Americanisms, Old and New: A Dictionary of Words, Phrases and Colloquialisms (Bookshop|Amazon), John S. Farmer calls the phrase “an inane exclamation.” The phrase likely stems from the idea of something bent like a hairpin, as in the description of someone’s tendencies, as in That’s my bent, and later the idea of having a crooked or criminal bent. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Just the Kind of Hairpin I Am”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, Martha. Hi, Grant.
My name is Kathy. I’m calling from Wichita, Kansas.
The reason I’m calling is because my mom used to have an expression that she would use, and I’ve often wondered where it came from and what the heck it really means. She was kind of an ornery girl, my mom. She would do a little, I think April Fool Day tricks and things like that. And if you ask her why she did that or say, I can’t believe you did that, she would say, yep, I guess that’s just the kind of hairpin I am. And I always thought, hairpin? What the heck? Does a hairpin have to do with anything? And how can a hairpin be a certain way? So I was just wondering how that expression came to be. That’s just the kind of hairpin I am. H-A-I-R-P-I-N, hairpin. That’s what I always thought, yes.
I don’t know. If you listen to the show a lot, you’re not going to be surprised. But maybe you will be surprised to find out that this term goes back at least to 1874.
Really?
Yeah, this expression pops up out of the blue in 1874 as just a thing that people start saying. It’s so unexpected that newspapers start commenting on it. There’s a San Francisco newspaper not long after the expression started appearing. Notice that it’s the latest slang and it has little idea of its origins. It catches on and it lasts for so long that it appears in an 1889 collection of Americanisms by John Farmer. And he calls it an inane exclamation. And he says, out of season, a short time ago. And he says that originated in New York, but that is just is not the case, according to the evidence.
Here’s what we do know about probably the origin of that’s just the kind of hairpin I am. Is that it probably refers to the fact that hairpins are bent, B-E-N-T. That is, they’re folded over in the middle. And bent for a long time, to the 1500s, has referred to one’s tendencies. Like you might say one’s tendencies, say, towards food, eating, or your tendency to be athletic, or your tendency to be, I don’t know, amorous when drunk, that sort of thing. And you might say, that’s how I am bent, which is basically the same meaning. And even later, to call someone bent would mean that they were dishonest or crooked or criminal. And so to say, that’s just the kind of hairpin I am, you say, that’s my tendency. That’s just the way I roll. That’s just how I am. That’s my bent.
Yeah, that’s my bent. And so I really think that’s what’s happening here because hairpins have long been referred to as an example of something that’s bent. He’s as bent as a hairpin. Meaning he’s crooked. He’s dishonest.
That makes sense.
So your mom wasn’t a straight pin. She was a hairpin.
Yeah, she was a hairpin. She was a hairpin. She was, that’s for sure.
So, Kathy, I have to ask, are you carrying on her ornery tradition?
As often as I can. That’s just the kind of hairpin I am.
Well, Kathy, thank you so much for calling and sharing these memories.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Take care now.
Bye-bye.
I appreciate.
You too.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
