17 August 2020
Dirt poor is an expression that dates to the late nineteenth century United States. It means, of course, very poor. But why the dirt?
It would seem the phrase originally referred to a farmer who owned their land, perhaps with a mortgage, but had little actual cash on hand. In this way, it would be akin to the present-day house poor, referring to someone who owns a nice home, but because of mortgage payments has little in the way of discretionary funds.
The concept, but not the phrase itself, can be seen in this line, which appeared in the Press and Daily Dakotaian of 2 July 1883. Bismarck here refers to the city, now the capital of North Dakota, not the German politician:
Bismarck is rich in prairie dirt, but poor in actual legal tender.
A few months later in the Chicago Daily Tribune of 14 October 1883, the phrase appears in a headline:
“Dirt Poor.” A Board of Trade Scalper Dabbles in Printing-Company Stock, with Bad Results.
The article, which does not use the phrase itself, is about an investor who swaps valuable stock for worthless land, and so dirt poor here literally refers to worthless land, not a state of poverty. But the fact the phrase is in quotation marks hints that the editors are engaging in word play, and the phrase dirt poor was already in oral circulation and known to their readers.
The earliest use I have found of dirt poor clearly used to mean very poor is from a May 1890 story, “Mark’s Substitute,” by Velma Melville. The relevant passage is about a man who pays for a substitute to take his place in the Union Army during the U.S. Civil War and later regrets it. The story was syndicated and appears in a number of newspapers across the United States:
“I bet if I was him I’d enlist first chance now ‘nd get my money back,” he continued.
“Everybody ain’t so fond of a dollar, nor so itchen for a fight as you be,” responded his wife, in the shrill treble she always used in addressing him.
“I ain’t no coward, none of the Moselys be,” he retorted.
“Neither be the Weidmans, Dick Mosely, but they’ve got sense enough to look out for number one. They ain’t dirt poor.”
Another early use from a syndicated story can be found in Mary Glascock’s 1893 “Under the Pines,” which again connects the phrase to a farm:
Me and mother farmed our ground ourselves and we’ve always been dirt poor; but me and Bill was always happy.
The bit of internet lore titled “Life in the 1500s” has been floating about cyberspace for decades. It claims that dirt poor dates to Elizabethan England where finished floors could only be afforded by the wealthy. This claim, like everything else in the piece, is utterly false.
Dirt poor is also not directly related to filthy rich. The use of filthy as an intensifier meaning extremely and offensively so is older. Filthy drunk dates to at least June 1827, when the Messenger for the Holston Conference reprinted the following from the New York Enquirer (I haven’t been able to find the original piece):
Within the present week, in a village not many miles from this city, at noonday, we saw two individuals staggering through the middle of the street most filthy drunk. Upon enquiry, we learned that one was about the wealthiest person in the place, worth considerably above $100,000, and that the other was the Postmaster! Can any thing be more shameful?
But filthy rich doesn’t appear until 9 November 1905, when it appears in the Iola Daily Register (Kansas):
It may be just as well hereafter not to wonder who those filthy rich people are speeding by in the ski-doodle cart.
It’s possible, of course, that the coining of filthy rich was influenced by the earlier dirt poor, but the older use of filthy as an intensifier indicates that it was not coined entirely in opposition to dirt poor.
Sources:
“‘Dirt Poor.’ A Board of Trade Scalper Dabbles in Printing-Company Stock, with Bad Results.” Chicago Daily Tribune, 14 October 1883, 16. ProQuest.
Glascock, Mary Willis. “Under the Pines.” Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, vol. 22, no. 128, August 1893, 151. ProQuest.
“Intemperance.” Messenger for the Holston Conference (Knoxville, TN), 16 June 1827. ProQuest.
Melville, Velma Caldwell. “Mark’s Substitute: A Decoration Day Sketch.” The True Northerner (Paw Paw, MI), 28 May 1890. Library of Congress: Chronicling America.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2016, s.v. filthy, adj., n. and adv.
Press and Daily Dakotaian (Yankton, Dakota Terr., SD), 2 July 1883, 1. Library of Congress: Chronicling America.