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Many variations of the phrase ‘a chip on his shoulder’ exist – most of them conveying much the same meaning. An early version appeared in 1830 in The Long Island Telegraph of Hempstead, New York. When two boys feuded, it was reported, ‘a chip would be placed on the shoulder of one’, who would then defy the other to knock it off and face the consequences.
Yet the phrase actually seems to be older, originating in England’s naval dockyards. During a 1756 strike at Chatham, it is recorded that disgruntled workers departing the yard ‘pushed on with their chips on their shoulders’.
In fact, the phrase may go back further still. In the 17th century, workers had a fiercely protected right to take short segments of surplus timber (‘chips’) out of the yard. The rationale was to ameliorate a fire hazard. The worker could either sell the chips or use them himself.
However, because of the profit incentive, it was believed that some workers were cutting otherwise serviceable timbers into segments just below the maximum allowable length for legitimate chip-removal of three feet. The Restoration-era diarist and naval administrator Samuel Pepys said that workmen sometimes stopped at alehouses and bought drinks with their chips.
Thus a worker exiting a yard with a timber atop his shoulder might well display a resentful attitude toward his dubious superiors, who watched him go. Eventually, the usage of the phrase ‘a chip on his shoulder’ widened to indicate the holding of a grudge.
The problem of chips was not trivial. Tons of wood might leave a dockyard in a single day. Chip-removal was banned several times in the 17th and 18th centuries, but this proved ineffectual. The practice persisted until its final abolition in 1801, when the perquisite was replaced by a cash payment.
