[Ads-l] plot hole (1924)

[Ben Zimmer]

The 1924 review of "The Sea Hawk" in the Telegraph-Forum appeared in the
New York Daily News earlier that year under the byline McElliott
(evidently Mabel McElliott).

https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-plot-holes/178376068/
(NY) Daily News, June 3, 1924, p. 22, col. 2


On Thu, Aug 7, 2025 at 2:06 PM Ben Zimmer <bgzimmer at gmail.com> wrote:

> OED3 added "plot hole" in its March 2025 update with a first cite of 1949.
> Here it is from 1924.
>
> ---
> https://www.newspapers.com/article/telegraph-forum/92256928/
> Telegraph-Forum (Bucyrus, Ohio), Oct. 8, 1924, p. 2, col. 6
> [review of the film "The Sea Hawk"]
> The trickery of the film is superb. There are few flaws, if any, in the
> arguments. All the plot holes are chinked up neatly.
> ---
>
> This cite was brought up on Reddit in a 2022 thread on r/etymology:
>
> https://www.reddit.com/r/etymology/comments/rzzgx7/where_does_the_phrase_plot_hole_come_from/
>
> One of the commenters there suggested "plot hole" might have started as a
> play on "pothole," but I haven't seen evidence for that. The 1924 example
> has the plot holes "chinked up," which typically referred to filling in
> gaps between the logs in a log cabin, so that's a different metaphorical
> basis.
>
> --bgz
>

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