Topical Guide 754
Mark Dorset
Law and Laws
Language: Technical Terms, Jargon, Word and Phrase Origins
What a Piece of Work I Am, Chapter 52:
. . . the town council passed a resolution setting an upper limit of twenty-four hours for any dramatic production staged within the limits of the town of Babbington, adding a “grandfather clause” exempting productions that had begun before the restriction went into effect.
The term “grandfather clause” has an ugly origin story.
Wikipedia, “Grandfather clause”:
A grandfather clause, also known as grandfather policy, grandfathering, or being grandfathered in, is a provision in which an old rule continues to apply to some existing situations while a new rule will apply to all future cases. Those exempt from the new rule are said to have grandfather rights or acquired rights, or to have been grandfathered in. […]
The term originated in late 19th-century legislation and constitutional amendments passed by a number of Southern U.S. states, which created new requirements for literacy tests, payment of poll taxes and residency and property restrictions to register to vote. States in some cases exempted those whose ancestors (e.g., grandfathers) had the right to vote before the American Civil War or as of a particular date from such requirements. The intent and effect of such rules was to prevent former African-American slaves and their descendants from voting but without denying poor and illiterate whites the right to vote. Although these original grandfather clauses were eventually ruled unconstitutional, the terms grandfather clause and grandfather have been adapted to other uses.
See also:
Language TG 11; Dialect, Slang, Idiolect, Shibboleths, Jargon TG 137, TG 659; Slang, Insults, Terms of Abuse TG 140; Slang TG 169; Languages: Learning and Translating TG 393; Idiolect, Private Meanings and References, Code Words TG 373; Idioms: Tug the (One’s) Forelock TG 459; Technical TG 652, Academic, Gibberish TG 492; Language in Translation: Russian to English TG 495; Idioms: English: “It’s Greek to me.” TG 595; Transformations Attendant to the Assimilation of Non-English “Loan Words” in American English, e.g., From Bologna to Baloney TG 624
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