A Zionsville, Indiana, man recalls that when his mother issued a warning to her kids, she would add for emphasis: “And that’s the word with the bark on it.” The bark in this case refers to rough-hewn wood that still has bark on it—in other words, it’s the pure, unadorned material. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “That’s the Word with the Bark on It”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi, this is Selden Bradley. I’m calling you from Zionsville, Indiana.
Zionsville, Indiana. Well, welcome to the show. How can we help you?
Well, we were talking about a phrase that my mother used.
If you do X, X will happen.
And that was appended with an ultimatum.
And that’s the word with the bark on it.
So if you steal cookies out of the cookie jar without permission, then you’ll be punished, and that’s the word with the bark on it?
Yes.
That would paraphrase.
The big dog has barked, and you, little puppy, had better pay attention.
Oh, so you connect it to dogs.
Oh, yes.
That’s kind of.
Oh, definitely.
Oh, really?
Oh, interesting, because it doesn’t actually come from dogs.
It actually comes from trees and wood, that kind of bark.
The earliest use that we know of is from 1836, and actually the word is wood, W-O-O-D, although almost all other examples I can find of it is that’s the word, W-O-R-D, with the bark on it, not that’s the wood with the bark on it.
And basically it meant unadorned, unshapened wood, where it’s just like the log.
You haven’t taken a tool or a file or an axe to it to trim off the branches of the bark or anything.
It’s just like the actual natural state of the purest form of expression of that thing.
So, Seldon, you’ve been given the word with the bark on it from Grant himself.
And I will take it very seriously.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Thank you so much for calling.
Cheers.
Bye-bye.
Take care.
Bye-bye.
That’s the word with the bark on it.
Not that common anymore.
No.
Basically an American expression as far as I can tell.
The word with the bark on it.
But it’s always nice when you can show that there’s a solid 175-plus-a-year history for a word, right?
Yeah, yeah, quite a visual.
Quite a visual, yeah.
But think about if you’ve ever done any kind of forestry.
No, no, I haven’t done any kind of forestry, but I’ve thrown, you know, logs into the fire.
But you think about the shaped wood, which is going to be used for, say, build something, versus the unshaped wood.
Right, this is the raw stuff, the real stuff.
I’m not adorning this with any kind of falsehoods and lies.
I’m telling you the pure natural truth.
And we will do that if you call us with your language question.
The number is 877-929-9673 or send it an email.
That address is words@waywordradio.org.
