From where did the term "The devil to pay" originate?

Answer 1

This phrase has nothing to do with the Devil or money. It is part of a longer saying, "The devil to pay, and no pitch hot". The "devil" is the heavy wooden beam used to support the big guns on sailing ships. It was also known as the Gunwale and was a very difficult place to get at for maintenance with the tar (pitch) needed to regularly seal (pay) the gaps in the ship's sides.

Answer 2

[Q] From Ian: “Is it true that the phrase the devil to pay comes from the 18th or early 19th century navy?”

[A] A naval origin is often given, but I don’t think that’s the answer.

The phrase is said to refer to the devil, a seam which was difficult to reach and which needed a lot of tar to caulk, or pay. The latter word is a well-attested usage on board ship, first recorded in the seventeenth century, but devil as a name for a ship’s seam is less well-known, and there’s suspicious disagreement among sources as to which seam is meant. The full expression given in many books is “there’s the devil to pay and only half a bucket of pitch”, or “there’s the devil to pay and no pitch hot”. But there’s no evidence that the expression had a nautical origin, though it was probably taken up on board ship once it had become something of a cliché, based on the existing shipboard meaning of pay. The longer versions are most likely fanciful later additions.

It’s more probable that the phrase was a reference to a Faustian bargain, a pact with Satan, and to the inevitable payment to be made to him in the end. Its earliest appearances at about the beginning of the eighteenth century certainly have no hint of a naval origin or context. Here’s an example written by Jonathan Swift in 1738: “I must be with my Wife on Tuesday, or there will be the Devil and all to pay”.

Answer 3

Its said that the expressions ``the devil to pay'' and ``between the devil and the deep (blue) sea'' do not refer to Satan but to a perfectly innocent nautical devil. This ``devil'' is a seam in a ship's hull, on or below the waterline.

``The devil to pay'' is supposed to be a short form of ``the devil to pay and no pitch hot.'' This interpretation depends on a homonym of the verb ``pay'' which means ``to apply pitch.''

Unfortunately for the nautical explanation, both expressions are attested much earlier than is the requisite sense of ``devil.''

We first find ``the devil to pay'' in a poem written about 1500. The couplet, rendered in modern English, goes ``It would be better to stay at home forever than to serve here to please - or pay - the devil.''

We have no evidence for the longer ``the devil to pay and no pitch hot'' until 1828.

``Between the devil and the deep sea'' goes back at least to 1637. Robert Munro, in ``His Expedition with the Worthy Scots Regiment called Mac-Keyes Regiment,'' wrote, ``I, with my partie, did lie on our poste, as betwixt the devill and the deep sea.''

The ``devil'' in a ship's hull, on the other hand, is first reported in William Henry Smyth's ``Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms,'' compiled about 1865. It is true that nautical terms are likely to enjoy a long oral use without being written down. But three and a half - or even two - centuries seems rather too long to be an acceptable assumption for the nautical explanation. It is more likely that this proverbial ``devil'' is the Devil himself.

Answer 4

It's was what General Bufurd (Union Cavalry) said to Gen. Reynolds (1st Corps Commander) after Reynolds asked how things were going on the morning of July 1, 1863. Now, after reading the above, i know what he meant.....

Answer 5

I hope I don't sound like I've been living under a rock, but I don't think I've ever heard that phrase. I *have*, however, heard "give the devil his due".

Answer 6

In Old England when people where on public display for there atrocities.

Answer 7

Someone trying to scare someone else.

Answer 8

from the bible