Where did the term ground, grounded, grounding come from? Example: "If you don't stop that, I'm going to ground you," or "I can't go out, I'm grounded," or "My friend received a harsh grounding for skipping class."

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Where did the term ground, grounded, grounding come from? Example: "If you don't stop that, I'm going to ground you," or "I can't go out, I'm grounded," or "My friend received a harsh grounding for skipping class."

Question #99496. Asked by ArrJay91.

Related Trivia Topics: Linguistics

zbeckabee

Answer has 5 votes

Currently Best Answer

zbeckabee

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18 year member
11752 replies avatar

Answer has 5 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.

I'm finding the same thing:

Meaning "deny privileges" is 1940s, originally a punishment meted out to pilots (in which sense it is attested from 1931).

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=ground&searchmode=none

Sep 17 2008, 5:14 PM

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Answer 1

Percytherat

Answer has 4 votes

Percytherat

16 year member
63 replies avatar

Answer has 4 votes.

One opinion is that it comes from the early or WWII days of flying - a pilot refused permission to fly or goout is grounded

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ground

Sep 17 2008, 4:04 PM

Where did the term ground, grounded, grounding come from? Example: "If you don't stop that, I'm going to ground you," or "I can't go out, I'm grounded," or "My friend received a harsh grounding for skipping class."

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