Why is it said, "between a rock and a hard place"?

Question

...would like to know the idiomatic origin of these words!

Answer 1

There are two explanations given for this expression -- I believe they are connected.

First, many surmise that it is simply a simplified, popularized form "between Scylla and Charybdis". This expression goes back to an episode in Homer's Odyssey in which the sailors are forced to try to navigate between two equally deadly perils -- Scylla was a terrifying monster who stood on rock cliffs, and Charybdis was a powerful, impassable whirlpool.

The ROCK reference is obvious; "hard" in "hard place" probably means "DIFFICULT" which fits perfectly fine with the danger/difficulty of Charybdis.
http://www.word-detective.com/back-h2.html
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/12/messages/670.html
http://www.emule.com/2poetry/phorum/read.php?4,20721

Others, while noting that the two expressions have the same meaning, focus on the earliest attested use of "(caught) between a rock. . . " in 1921 to describe the hardships of miners in the early part of the century in Arizona.

The phrase is interpreted as referring specifically to the danger of BANKRUPTCY. Generally it is thought to connect to a financial panic early in the century; the 1921 reference seems to be specifically about the "Brisbee incident".

Here is the specific citation -
. The earliest known printed reference is Dialect Notes V, 1921:
"To be between a rock and a hard place, ..to be bankrupt. Common in Arizona in recent panics; sporadic in California."

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/62900.html
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/3/messages/132.html
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=rock

Proponents of this view may play it off against the first one. But I see no reason why the two cannot be connected, especially since the Arizona miner setting offers NO explanation of WHY this specific image might have been chosen!

I would suggest that the OCCASION of the coining/updating/simplifying of the expression might well be the financial hardship of early 20th century miners, but that whoever first used it did so based on Scylla and Charybdis.

Answer 2

People who are in difficult situations and do not know which way to turn, what to do, what to say, etc. always say they are between a rock and a hard place (rocks are hard, too, so they imagine themselves between two hard things and can't find a simple solution or a way out of their predicament).

Answer 3

This is a slang expression describing a decision that you don't want to make. The expression has been used for at least the last fifty years but the origin of the expression is unknown.

Answer 4

basically it means than you are between two hard decisions....
a rock is hard, get it?
it's one of those times when there is no right or wrong decision, just a tough choice between.

Answer 5

Meaning that if there were two choices put in front of you, either one would be as bad as the other. Like - "Better the devil you know" or "out of the frying pan and into the fire".

Answer 6

Used as a phrase, it basically means that neither option is ideal but that you have to choose one or the other!

Answer 7

someone fell and when ask what was the matter the caveman said," i am..... place." it just kinda took off from there! true story!