What is the origin of the phrase the beatings will continue until morale improves?
There is a Metafilter and a Quora out on it, but they are inconclusive, and the phrase does not appear in the dictionary.
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What is the origin of the phrase the beatings will continue until morale improves?
There is a Metafilter and a Quora out on it, but they are inconclusive, and the phrase does not appear in the dictionary.
Morale is probably the key word of the expression which has a few variants;
“The firings/floggings/beatings will continue until morale improves”
Morale meaning “confidence” (especially in a military context) first recorded 1831, from confusion with French moral (Modern French distinguishes le moral “temperament” and la morale “morality”). (etymonline)
and the military contexts are the probably where the expressions come from as suggested by the site barrypopik.com
The saying might have originated in the navy. The Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations (1966) by Robert Debs Heinl includes, “There will be no liberty on board this ship until morale improves.—Excerpt from Plan of the Day, USS * * *.” “No leave until morale improves” has been cited in print since at least 1967.
The same site provides a few related sentences from the 60s:
From Dictionary of Military and Naval Quotations By Robert Debs Heinl Annapolis, MD: U.S. Naval Inst. 1966
Pg. 197: There will be no liberty on board this ship until morale improves. Excerpt from Plan of the Day, USS
From House of Commons Debates, Official Report Canada. Parliament. House of Commons Issue 1, Volume 14 1966
Pg. 14,511: Part of the daily orders reads as follows: There will be no leave until morale Improves. The words “no leave until morale improves” have been underlined by the person who sent this excerpt to the Darmouth Free Press.
The is no real evidence to support the more commonly cited origins, that is Captain Bligh and the Mutiny on the Bounty, and the commander of the Submarine Force of the Japanese Imperial Navy during World War II.