[Ads-l] "face the music" etymology (?)

[Baker, John]

Newspapers.com has an earlier example from 1833, clipped by someone who uses the name gnorrn, https://newscomwc.newspapers.com/clip/23598381/face-the-music-1833/.  From the Boston Post (Nov. 22, 1833):

“Robert pleaded “drunk – a sick mother – and a loss of $10.”  And the Court replied, by sentencing him to give bonds to keep the peace, pay the costs of prosecution, and stand committed for want of the means to face the music.”


John Baker


From: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> On Behalf Of Dan Goncharoff
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2020 2:01 PM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: "face the music" etymology (?)

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Interesting.

Now, do we have an explanation for "staring us in the face"?

DanG


On Fri, Jul 10, 2020 at 4:57 AM Stephen Goranson <goranson at duke.edu<mailto:goranson at duke.edu>> wrote:

> Many explanations of "face the music" have been offered, and the meaning
> and application of the phrase may have become more broad over time, but an
> origin solution may have been in effect staring us in the face.
> The face seems less problematic than the music. Face: meet, encounter,
> confront, engage (come to Limerick, etc.). But what music? Stage fright
> while facing a pit orchestra? Hear some Mozart? Dance? Calm a horse next to
> a marching band? Being drummed out of the corps for cowardice? All unlikely.
> The sense of face the music, in early use --reported on ads-l from 1834 in
> the US--is a call to be brave.
> Many dictionaries report an earlier, outlier, jarring meaning for music:
> gunfire, battle sounds.
> Early uses of the phrase encourage joining the noisy fray, originally
> military, then also political and others, eventually, in later use, also
> taking punishment for some past act.
> Examples already reported seem to support this development.
> ?
> Stephen
>
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