[PW] Re: Earlier meaning for "chip on the shoulder"

[John P. Dyson]

Quoting Sylvia Milne <sylviamilne at btinternet.com>:


> I remarked to my husband that somebody I know has a chip on his shoulder and
> immediately wondered what the origin of the phrase is.
> Like a good librarian, I went to the OED and found
>
> a chip on one's shoulder (orig. U.S.), carried as a challenge to others
> (see earlier quots.); hence, a display of defiance or ill-humour; an
> unforgotten grievance; a sense of inferiority characterized by a quickness
> to take offence.
>
> However, my husband remembers reading about the origins of the phrase in a
> book about woodworking, but can't remember  what it said.
> It makes sense that the phrase originated in carpentry.
> Has any w0mbat come across it in that context?


Hello Sylvia,

I don't have a definitive source for you, but you may want to consider
the following. Eastern North America was an extensive forest when first
found and colonized by Europeans. The next next 325 years were spent
cutting most of the trees down. We were a nation of woodcutters first
and loggers later, so that the chip on one's shoulder is more likely to
have come from the woodsman's axe than from the carpenter's plane. A
chip is not a shaving, sez I. And I've had both on my brogans (but not
on my shoulders).

John Dyson