When James from Waco, Texas, was lost while hiking, he wondered Where in the blazes am I?, then wondered about the origin of that expression. It doesn’t derive from blaze meaning “to cut into a tree to mark a trail.” That term belongs to a family of words that mean “shining” or “white,” and refers to cutting away tree bark to reveal the lighter surface underneath — hence, blazing a trail and trailblazer. The question Where in the blazes? is simply a euphemism for Where in the hell?, the blazes in this case being “the fires of the Devil’s domain.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Where in the Blazes am I?”
Hello, welcome to A Way with Words.
Hi, how’s it going?
This is James Dorsey. I’m calling from Waco, Texas.
Hi, James. Welcome to the show.
Hi, James. Last summer, I was walking the trail, Appalachian Trail, and I had started from Maine. Normally, you walk the trail from Georgia to Maine, but I started from Maine going south to Georgia.
And within my first two or three days on the trail, you know, quickly realized, you know, they do pretty good with marking the trail with blazes, the first long distance trail I’d ever hiked before. And so I thought it was really cool how well the trail was marked. You could probably do it without a map, just need a compass.
And so these white blazes that were on the trail, marked on the trees on the trail, you’d follow. They’re like every two or three trees. It’ll keep you going. It’s pretty good. But one time I got wrapped around and couldn’t tell where I was at. Didn’t have good self-service, couldn’t figure out where I was at.
And instantly, intuitively, the phrase came out of my mouth, where in the blazes am I? And immediately I was like, wait a minute. Is that where this comes from? Is that where that phrase came from? You know, I’m picturing, you know, early, you know, frontier days. You know, this is how trails are marked with blazes. And, you know, when the guy gets lost, you know, where in the blazes are we? And so that was my question, if you guys had info on where that came from.
Well, we’re glad you found your way out. How long did that take?
No, it was a quick turnaround. It wasn’t too bad. It might have happened one or two more times while I was out there, but I always got it worked out.
Okay. Yeah. Well, you’re talking about two entirely different blazes here. The blaze that is on the tree is where somebody cuts into the dark colored bark to expose the lighter part of the tree. And that’s the way that you mark the trail. And that goes back to a very, very, very old root that means shining or white. And it’s a distant relative of the kind of blaze that is a fire.
But when you say where the blazes am I, that kind of blazes is specifically a euphemism for the fires of hell. You know, where in the hell am I? That’s what you’re saying. So I guess the right way to say it is that those two kinds of blaze evolved different senses over the centuries.
So any place you might say, what the blaze is, you could say, what the hell.
Right. So there were older forms, Martha, right? Like you might say to someone, go to blazes, and you meant go to hell.
Sure.
Yeah. Or the blue blazes. He ran like the blazes.
Yeah. Yeah. Like blazes I will. I mean, like hell I will.
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay. I might actually start using it that way a little bit more now. Bring it back to life.
Yeah. And you’ll think of us when you do, right?
That’s right. That’s right.
So you hiked the green tunnel, huh?
Yes, I did. I attempted a through hike and it turned into a partial. I got about 350 miles before I got off trail.
Well, no shame in that, right? That’s really impressive.
I think so. Yeah. Thank you. Well, Martha Grant, thank you so much. You guys have a wonderful day.
Take care. Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
We can’t always help you if you’re lost, but we can help you if you’re lost for words, 877-929-9673.
