What Is The Origin Of (153)?…
Peter out
Peter out is another phrase to describe a disappointing outcome after a promising start, the frequency of such phrases is perhaps synonymous with the reality of life. When something peters out it dwindles away to nothing. My sense is that it is slightly more neutral than fizzle out which conveys a hint of annoyance, frustration or despair. But where does our phrase come from and, in particular, what does peter mean?
America in the mid 19th century was a land of opportunity as immigrants began to exploit its vast mineral reserves. In particular, for many the lure of panning for and finding gold proved irresistible. The California gold rush of 1848 is perhaps the most famous but there had been earlier gold rushes – in 1799 at Cabarrus County, North Carolina and in 1829 in Georgia. The problem with small seams of mineral is that they were finite in size and soon exhausted. Peter seems to have been used by miners to describe this phenomenon and the consequent impact on their luck and fortune.
The first recorded use of peter in this context appeared in the Milwaukee Daily Gazette in December 1845 where a miner laments his luck thus, “When my mineral petered why they all Petered me. Now it is dig, dig, dig, drill, drill for nothing. My luck is clean gone – tapered down to nothing.” Peter out seems to have first appeared in 1854 in Puddleford and its People by Henry Hiram Riley and its usage is figurative rather than rooted in prospecting; “he hoped this ‘spectable meeting warn’t going to Peter-out.” By 1873 it was being used again in the context of mining and if the gloss provided by Appleton’s Journal of 18th October 1873 is to be relied upon, it was a piece of miners’ argot. “No mortal forecast can tell whether a good vein will not narrow to nothing (‘peter out,’ as the miners phrase it) in a week; and, on the other hand, it may widen in that time beyond all anticipation.”
From this rather narrow usage, it developed the wider, figurative usage with which we are familiar today. But why peter? The temptation is almost irresistible to associate it with the apostle Peter, who, after all, was the rock. Perhaps it was an example of a minced oath, one of those whose contents are changed to avoid blasphemy and to protect the sensitivities of the religious? Attractive as this may be, I think it unlikely.
The next candidate is the agent with which rocks were dislodged to reveal the minerals – gunpowder, an important component of which is saltpetre. The American spelling, almost certainly due to the strictures of Noah Webster, is saltpeter and peter is found as a slang word used to describe the act of using gunpowder as this example from 1962 shows, “The Dolman boys are going to peter a pawnshop safe tonight.” The problem I have with this usage is that there is no sense of dwindling.
Perhaps a more likely derivation is from the French verb, péter, which means, inevitably, to fart. It is certainly the origin of petard, a medieval military explosive device, and was used in the 18th century to describe a loaded dice. In the 19th century peter appeared as a slang word meaning to stop or cease – the first example is found in 1812 – and this seems to be more apposite to the modern usage.
Which origin, if any, is correct is uncertain and my attempts to go any further petered out.
Filed under: Culture, History Tagged: Cabarrus County gold rush, California Gold Rush, fizzle out, Georgia Gold Rush, minced oath, mining slang, Noah Webster, origin of peter out, péter, saltpetre, the Apostle Peter
