Which is the correct idiom – "When worst comes to worst" or "When worse comes to worst"? [closed]
According to my copy of Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage (MWCDEU), the idiomatic phrase was first recorded in 1597 as:
- if the worst comes to the worst
And here's an excerpt with some interesting info from MWCDEU:
As is the case with many idioms, the phrase seems nonsensical if its parts are examined individually. Presumably it was the desire to make the phrase more logical that gave rise to the variant if the worse comes to the worst, which was first recorded in 1719, when it was used (in the past tense) by Daniel Defoe in Robinson Crusoe.
And their concluding paragraph has interesting info too:
The forms which are most commonly used are if worst comes to worst and if worse comes to worst. The definite articles are now omitted more often than not in American use; our little British evidence shows them usually retained.
I've found that the usage dictionary MWDEU or MWCDEU quite helpful in many discussions of English usage.
Ngram frequencies over the years
Ngram search results indicate that there is considerable (and growing) disagreement in print publications as to the proper form. Here is the Ngram chart for "worse comes to worse" (blue line) versus "worse comes to worst" (red line) versus "worst comes to worst" (green line) versus "worst comes to worse" (no line because too few matches to plot) for the period 1800–2008:
The graph indicates several noteworthy things. First the oldest popular form (by a few years) seems to be "worst comes to worst"—the green line—which for most of the past two centuries has also been the most common form of the three variants plotted here. Second, at some point in the 1970s "worse comes to worst"—the red line—seems to have become more common in print than "worst comes to worst," although the lead it built up between then and the turn of the century drops off considerably during the period 2000–2008. Third, although "worse comes to worse"—the blue line—is still the least popular form of the three its frequency has steadily increased since about 1940, and it is now serious contender in the race for "the correct way to spell the idiom."
Of course, when people use the idiom in spoken conversation, it often comes out something like "wurs' comes to wurs'," so it's impossible to tell whether the silent letters are e's, t's, or some mix of the two.
Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, second edition (2013) hedges her bets by offering an entry with the following title:
if worst comes to worse Also, if worse comes to worst. In the least favorable situation, if the worst possible outcome occurs. For example, If worst comes to worst and the budget is not approved, the government will shut down, or Go ahead and go to school with a school with a cold; if worse comes to worst the teacher will send you home. This expression is nearly always followed by a solution. {Late 1500s}
Ammer seems unaware of the rising popularity of "worse comes to worse" as a third viable option.
But when we add searches for versions of the expression with "the" inserted before the final worse [or worst], we get a new champion—"worst comes to the worst" (the dark green line in this chart):
I have no idea what caused the sudden resurgence of this variant during the period 2000–2008, after more than half a century of steep decline, but that's what the Ngram chart shows, anyway.
Early occurrences of various forms of the expression
Early English Books Online finds instances of "worst come to the worst" dating back to this instance from Thomas Nashe, Haue vvith you to Saffron-vvalden. Or, Gabriell Harueys hunt is vp Containing a full answere to the eldest sonne of the halter-maker. Or, Nashe his confutation of the sinfull doctor (1596), involving an argument about whether burning or drowning is worse:
[Piers Pennilesse] Respon[dent]: O, you must not conclude so desperate, for euerie tossing billow brings not death in the mouth of it : besides, if the worst come to the worst, a good swimmer may doo much, whereas fire rapit omnia secum, sweepeth cleane where it seazeth.
Although "worst comes to [the] worst" may have enjoyed a century or more of unrivaled written usage, the alternative wordings have by now been around for quite some time. For example, from Hawser Martingale [John Sleeper], Salt Water Bubbles: Or, Life on the Wave (1857):
'The American and English vessels of war in these seas have captured or destroyed all the pirate vessels. If any piracy is still carried on, it is by means of open boats, or feluccas, manned by a few desperate villains, armed with muskets. They attack only the defenceless, and if a dozen of them should attack the Horse Mackerel, especially in such a breeze as this, we would run them down, or sink them with a few well-directed shots. But we shall see nothing; and, indeed, if the worse comes to the worst, we can use our heels. Few vessels, in a good breeze, can overhaul the Horse Mackerel.'
And from Johannes Ebers, The New and Complete Dictionary of the German and English Languages (1799):
They say familiarly, wenn alle Stricte reißen , when all comes to all, when the worse comes to the worse.
Even "worst comes to worse," though spurned by Ngram, has had its proponents. For example, from a letter written by the poet Marrianne Moore's mother, Mary, to her daughter in 1908 or 1909, quoted in Linda Leavell, Holding On Upside Down: The Life and Work of Marianne Moore (2012):
"As I've said before, dear Nunkey, dinna fret about next year," Mary answered. "We should be so happy at home together—that surely when worst comes to worse, we should not be very badly off."
Conclusions
The question "which is the correct idiom" anticipates that there is a correct version. But what we actually have is a set of evolving and competing variants—all of them at least slightly at odds with the earliest recorded form—"if the worst come to the worst"—from 1596.
To judge from the second Ngram chart shown above, the four main competitors at this point are "worst comes to the worst," "worse comes to worse," worst comes to worst," and "worse comes to worse."If your inclination runs to the historically longest established, you'll want to use one of the versions with two worsts. But real-world usage provides plenty of support for the legitimacy of any of the other three—and arguably, of other variants as well.