Hey, y’all!! In this post, I’ll be diving into the history of the idiom “Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.” This bizarre saying has always intrigued me. I can’t imagine anyone ever throwing out a baby with bath water. So of course, I had to indulge into going down that rabbit hole. Hope you’ll to join me! So read on or skip ahead to watch my YouTube video for the tea!
Common Misconception
In the middle ages, when people didn’t have modern day plumbing and the luxury of running water, it’s believed that everyone in the home shared bath water. The father typically got first dibs, then mother, and children last. By then, the bath water was so funky and murky it was hard to see through. So you better be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water! Seems far fetched, right? Well I’m happy to share that I did not find any reports of babies being thrown out with the bath water that may have led to the saying.
Origin
The phrase “throw the baby out with the bathwater” is a calque of a German proverb, das Kind mit dem Bade ausschütten, that dates to at least 1512. It’s first known appearance in German is in Thomas Murner’s 1512 satirical Narrenbeschwörung (Appeal to Fools). A treatise on fools who, by trying to rid themselves of a bad thing, succeed in destroying whatever good there was as well.
It was several centuries later, in 1853, before the phrase actually appeared in English and it was a disturbing one, appearing in a racist, pro-slavery tract by essayist and philosopher Thomas Carlyle. Now that doesn’t mean the phrase itself is a racist one and shouldn’t be used. It’s just worth recognizing that his intent, as a known white supremacist and anti-semite, was to use the phrase in a degradding way. The passage is from Carlyle’s 1853 essay that I will not be naming here. The phrase appears again in American writing a few years later, in The Dial, a religious magazine’s February 1860 issue. But it’s likely, the phrase was brought to North America by German immigrants, rather than through the influence of Carlyle.
Conclusion
Fortunately the idiom “Don’t Throw the Baby Out With the Bath Water” is primarily a literary metaphor rather than a direct reflection of historical bathing habits. So we can presume no babies were harmed in the origin of the idiom. The phrase simply means don’t discard something valuable while getting rid of something undesirable.
I hope you enjoyed this little language history lesson. If so, checkout some of my other posts on language and idioms, and find me on social media where I cover more fun tops!
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