Hang In There – Part 2

Research #8 – The Dictionary of Clichés defines our phrase “hang in there” as sticking with something, even when the going gets tough. It further explains the expression to have come from the boxing world. When a fighter who is getting the worst of the fight would “hang in there”. He would hold on to the ropes or the arms of his opponent for a break, or breathing space. I haven’t been able to find more evidence to this being true. Actually, I haven’t been able to find any birthplace on the expression, only affirmation is from this book. The Dictionary of Clichés goes on to give an example of the expression being used in a 1971 passage from The Atlantic-“He has a long history of coming from behind, they say, and it would be in his nature to hang in there and fight.”

I did find some information, not origin history necessarily, but it links the phrase to an image titled “Hang in There, Baby”, the image is shown to the right. This image is associated with coming from the 70’s as a motivational poster. Again, this isn’t the origin, or  the “who said or wrote it first” story I try to find. However, it is the only story that comes up when I continue the research for the origination history.

I hoped I could have found more information on where this figure of speech came from. We have these sayings we use regularly, especially ones like “hang in there”, but I guess we can’t  always get to find out who said them first.