Churchillian Drift is the term, coined by British writer Nigel Rees, which describes the widespread misattribution of quotes by obscure figures to more famous figures, usually of their time period.[1] The term connotes the particular egregiousness of misattributions to British prime minister Winston Churchill.

Rees identified George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and Mark Twain as other writers who often receive incorrect attributions.[1]

Selected examples

  • Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy, and the lash.
    • According to Churchill's assistant, Anthony Montague-Browne, Churchill had not coined this phrase, but wished he had.
    • Resembles an ironic aphorism cited by Langworth from the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations as 19th-century English naval tradition, "Ashore it's wine, women and song; aboard it's rum, bum and concertina" or variously "... rum, bum and bacca [tobacco]".[2][3]
  • The heaviest cross I have to bear is the Cross of Lorraine.
    • This remark referring to Charles de Gaulle was actually made by General Edward Louis Spears, Churchill's personal representative to the Free French.
    • Film producer Alexander Korda asked Churchill in 1948 if he had made the remark, he replied
      • No, I didn't say it; but I'm sorry I didn't, because it was quite witty ... and so true!
        • Quoted in Nigel Rees, Sayings of the Century p. 105.
  • Lady Nancy Astor: If I were your wife I'd put poison in your coffee.
    Churchill: If I were your husband I'd drink it.
    • Dates to 1899, American humor origin, originally featuring a woman upset by a man's cigar smoking. Cigar often removed in later versions, coffee added in 1900. Incorrectly attributed in Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan, Glitter and Gold (1952).
    • See various early citations and references to refutations at "If you were my husband, I'd poison your coffee" (Nancy Astor to Churchill?), Barry Popik, The Big Apple, February 9, 2009
    • Early examples include 19 November 1899, Gazette-Telegraph (CO), "Tales of the Town," p. 7, and early attributions are to American humorists Marshall P. Wilder and De Wolf Hopper.
    • Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations, by Richard Langworth, PublicAffairs, 2008, p. 578.
    • The Yale Book of Quotations, edited by Fred R. Shapiro, New Haven, Connecticut, Yale University Press, 2006, p. 155.
    • George Thayer, The Washington Post (April 27, 1971), p. B6.
  • If you're going through hell, keep going.
  • Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm
    • Attribution debunked in Langworth's Churchill by Himself. The earliest close match located by the Quote Investigator is from the 1953 book How to Say a Few Words by David Guy Powers.[5]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Rees, Nigel (2009-08-13). "Policing Word Abuse". Forbes. Retrieved 2017-01-06.
  2. ↑ Robert Deis. "Churchill's alleged quip about British naval tradition". This Day in Quotes.
  3. ↑ Richard Langworth. Churchill by Himself: The Definitive Collection of Quotations. p. 577. ISBN 1586489577. In dinner conversation ca. 1955, private secretary Anthony Montague Browne confronted WSC with this quotation. 'I never said it. I wish I had,' responded Churchill. (AMB to the editor.) 'Compare "Rum, bum, and bacca" and "Ashore it's wine women and song, aboard it's rum, bum and concertina", naval catchphrases dating from the nineteenth century' -- Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
  4. ↑ http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/09/14/keep-going/
  5. ↑ 1953, How to Say a Few Words by David Guy Powers, Quote p. 109, Doubleday & Company, Garden City, New York. Referenced by Quote Investigator
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