Each week here at the Australian Writers’ Centre, we dissect and discuss, contort and retort, ask and gasp at the English language and all its rules, regulations and ridiculousness. It’s a celebration of language, masquerading as a passive-aggressive whinge about words and weirdness. This week, the big dry…
Q: Hi AWC, do you think we need to start rehearsing these chats?
A: That’s a terrible idea. They’d be far more boring.
Q: So you’re saying we shouldn’t do a “dry run”?
A: Yes, that’s what we’re say— Okay, where are you going with this?
Q: Haha, yeah, it’s my question for this week. WHY do we call something a “dry run”?
A: You’re of course referring to the literal phrase that Macquarie Dictionary defines as “a test exercise or rehearsal”. Any ideas where it might come from?
Q: A desert marathon?
A: Nice guess, but nothing like that at all.
Q: What about Prohibition and having no alcohol?
A: Not bad, but it looks like we need to go back earlier – to the late 1880s and fire stations.
Q: Ooooh can I slide down the pole?
A: Well, we’re not actually there, but sure.
Q: Weeeeeeeeeee!
A: Finished?
Q: Yes, thanks. Carry on.
A: There is a large body of evidence to support the theory that a “dry run” originated with fire departments. They famously spend a lot of their time waiting to attend actual fires. And when they’re not doing that?
Q: Pole dancing?
A: No! They’re testing their equipment.
Q: Oh yes, that makes more sense.
A: Many of their tests were simply to practice the procedure of getting out the hose and attaching it to a hydrant and so on. In those cases, they’d do a “dry run” – everything but turn on the water.
Q: Yeah that’s smart. And water-wise.
A: There are fire station logs from this era showing “dry runs” as a thing in training. And in 1910, a report of a contest between departments that had different categories including “wet tests” and “dry runs”.
Q: Mystery solved! But when did it start getting used for everything else?
A: By the 1930s it was being applied to other specific areas. Bricklaying apprentices performed a “dry run” laying bricks. Same for carpenters without glue. But it was once the military got hold of it that it really took off.
Q: Don’t they usually create fires, not put them out?
A: Haha, well, the “fire” in this case is of the “ready-aim-fire” variety! A dry run was seen as a military exercise that didn’t use live ammunition.
Q: And what about just rehearsals in general?
A: The term seems to have exploded in the 1940s.
Q: Exploded? I thought we weren’t using live ammunition?
A: Hilarious. It entered the dictionary in 1941 and the use of it in World War II no doubt affected its usage too, as a lot of military vernacular spread across the globe during this period.
Q: So today it can still mean all those things in fire stations or battalions, but we could also just use it for any practice or rehearsal, yeah?
A: That’s right. If you had a presentation to give tomorrow, you might suggest a dry run the day before. A theatre production might do a dry run without costumes, and so on. Another area it is used specifically in today is software design – with a “dry run” being a specific test stage when creating an app or program, etc.
Q: From fire management to file management!
A: That’s a good one. You’re on fire today.
Q: Hey, I make the jokes around here…
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