Have you ever been so angry you could hardly speak?
Lucky for you, the English language has no shortage of ways to describe such an emotion. We can be furious, livid, incensed, ballistic, infuriated, or outraged. All of these suggest someone on the verge of losing control.
In other words, someone who might be fit to be tied. That anger-laced phrase has been on our minds ever since our listener Sherry Wells wrote to us: “I have a feeling I’ll say ‘Oh, of course!’ once you explain this, but where does the phrase fit to be tied come from?”
Unfortunately, we don't have a firm origin story for "fit to be tied." We can unpack this phrase a bit though, starting with "fit."
The adjective "fit" goes back hundreds of years. It meant "in a suitable condition for doing or undergoing something," as in "fit for service." By the 1500s, "fit" could also mean “ready for” or “in a state of.”
The Oxford English Dictionary gives the example, "They make you stand until you are fit to sink," meaning that you're made to stand until you're ready to sink to the ground. "Fit to sink" could also mean "embarrassed" or "alarmed." We can probably all think of a time when were so embarrassed we wanted to sink into the floor.
By the early 1800s, the phrase "fit to be tied" had turned up in the language as a way to describe someone so angry that they might need to be physically restrained - tied up, so to speak. In some dialects, the phrase can also refer to someone who’s overly excited or agitated.
For more on "fit to be tied" and other "fit to be" phrases, listen to the audio above.
