William Blacker Archives – A Way with Words

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Currently viewing the tag: "William Blacker"

Keep Your Powder Dry

Posted by Grant Barrett on February 25, 2019 · Add Comment

Shelby calls from Rockville, Indiana, to ask about the origin of the phrase keep your powder dry. Many people surmise it derives from words uttered by Oliver Cromwell, but there’s no recorded evidence of this. The phrase first pops up in the early 19th century, and was popularized by a song from the early 1830s [...]