Why Do We Say "Put a Sock in It"?

This splendid term, meaning "quiet down," is both colorful and fun, but where does it come from? Sources agree that the phrase first appeared in early 20th-century Britain. One early example of its use dates to a 1919 edition of London's literary magazine, The Athenæum, which provided a definition as follows: "'Put a sock in it,' meaning 'Leave off talking, singing or shouting.'"

As the website Phrase Finder rightly points out, the fact that the magazine felt it necessary to provide a definition suggests this was a relatively new expression at the time.

However, one slightly earlier use has been uncovered in the 1917 book, Happy-Though Wounded! The book of the 3rd London General Hospital. The hospital of the title had been an orphanage up until the start of World War I, when it was requisitioned by the military to treat wounded soldiers from across the British Empire. The book contains articles, photos, and cartoons written by staff and patients, remembering events from the hospital's six-year history. Inside its pages can be found the words: "'Put a sock in it, Fusiliers.' Hereupon a sudden and awful silence. The Night Sister has entered the ward."​

The Gramophone Theory

Could this provide clues to a possible origin for the phrase? To find the answer, perhaps the question that needs to be asked is: what are we putting the sock into?

Gramophones have been put forward as one theory. The forerunner of the modern turntable, gramophones were invented by Emile Berliner, who patented his idea in 1887. Much like a contemporary record player, gramophones worked by converting vibrations from a needle passing over grooves in a flat disc into sound. In the gramophone's case, these sounds were emitted through a diaphragm and then via a large horn. What better way to shut off unwelcome noise from a gramophone than stuffing a sock into its horn? By the time of the First World War, the gramophone was a widely known invention, so the dates fit.

The Military Connection

The real answer, or at least the most likely, is that the phrase did originally arise as the notion of stuffing a sock into a disagreeable gramophone, but the military connection also appears key. Gramophones would have been common in a soldier's barracks, as would a ready supply of socks!

The phrase certainly found its way into the 1925 book Soldier and Sailor Words and Phrases, by Edward Fraser and John Gibbons: "Put a sock in it: Leave off making a noise. Stop talking." Whilst no definitive origin can be stated, irritated soldiers and inconsiderate barrack-mates make for the most obvious explanation.

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