Obama, Democrats, Entomologists and Etymologists Take a Shellacking

President Obama recently remarked about the “shellacking” the democrats took in the mid-term elections, which sent this word geek scurrying to find out how the word for a substance used in sealants, coatings and varnishes came to be synonymous with taking a beating. Our friends across the water at BBC were faster in asking this question (seewww.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11692885), but they were unable, as am I, to unearth how the slang evolved.

“Shellac” is a combination of shell and lac (in French laque en ecailles: lac in thin plates), the latter being a resinous exudation left on tree branches by female bugs (with such lascivious-sounding taxonomical names as Laccifer Lacca, Kerria Lacca, among others). The resin hardens into a protective shell, which is known as stick lac. The shell, stick and bug are broken up and separated so that only the lac remains. The lac flakes are then mixed with either alcohol or acetone and turned into shellac. (Historical note: Old 78 record albums were made for a time from shellac.)

How the word came to mean a sound thrashing is a mystery. Merriam Webster’s 11^th Collegiate edition gives 1931 as the year that the usage came about, but the dictionary offers no citation (perhaps Herbert Hoover received the inaugural shellacking in 1932). The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (as opposed to the Old Longer One) pegs the birth of the slang sometime between 1930 and 1969. Oxford’s citation is from one R. Coover: “The Knicks shellacked Mel Trench’s Cels, and hung on to their two-game lead.”  (How the tables have turned since then–Knicks fans these days are usually on the receiving end of shellackings by the Celtics and just about everybody else.)

Shellac is also the name of a rock band from Chicago. Members of the band were not contacted about their theory of the word’s derivation.

Finally, as a staffer with FORBES ASIA, I’d be remiss in not wishing folks in India and elsewhere a Happy Diwali! As our colleague Naazneen Karmali in Mumbai likes to say, “Time to get shellacked!”