Etymology of "cut someone some slack"
Solution 1:
It is possible that the set phrase "cut someone some slack" is simply a metaphorical use of cut combined with a metaphorical use of slack:
Slack
ADJECTIVE
1.0 Not taut or held tightly in position; loose:
2.0 Having or showing laziness or negligence:
Slack can intuitively apply to any standard metaphorically: neglect your standard or do not hold on tightly to your standard.
Cut
3.2 Separate (something) into two; sever:
Cut can intuitively apply to any standard metaphorically: Separate a standard for me. The two words complement each other, so that Cut me some slack renders the meaning:
"Separate some loosely held standard for me."
There are many plausible imaginative practical scenarios for metaphorical application:
- Cooperage
- Maritime: Mixed metaphor with "Give me some slack."
- Masonry: Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, Volume 3: 1847,page 439.
- Colliery: Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Volume 131: 1898, page 144.
- Hanging: Adventures of the Comte de la Muette During the Reign of Terror: 1898, pages 100-101.
- Electric Transmission: Bulletin, Volume 4, By National Electric Light Association: 1911, page 456.
There is no conclusive evidence establishing any of these scenarios as the etymological source for Cut me some slack. It is quite possible that the broad practical use of the phrase cut slack established the metaphorical application as a set phrase. If there was a single practical source of the metaphorical application, the cooperage application is most likely, for two reasons: it establishes an acceptable lower standard, and it was used far more extensively than any other practical application.
Coopers, maintained a stock of two qualities of staves to build their barrels: high quality tight staves for barrels to hold liquid goods; and low quality slack staves, for barrels to hold dry goods:
The Packages, Volume 24, November 1921, Page 36
The terms "tight cooperage stock" and "slack cooperage stock" are applied by the trade to staves, beading and hoops used by coopers in the manufacture or assembly of hogshead barrels, kegs, kits and firkins. Tight cooperage stock pertains to containers for liquids, and slack cooperage stock to containers for solids.
The slack cooperage industry was nearly twice as extensive as the tight cooperage industry, producing 50% more value with a significantly less valuable product:
Scientific American: Supplement, Volume 88
The slack end of the business is the larger, judged by the quantity of wood required to manufacture the product... The value of the slack stock used in the country is nearly fifty percent more than the value of tight material.
The forestry industry also referred to lower quality timber as slack cooperage blocks. To cut slack cooperage blocks referred to harvesting specific species of trees that meet lower slack cooperage quality specifications.
Forest Farmer Manual: 1955 - Page 66
Generally several cuttings are made. In hardwood forests, the buyer or the owner usually takes out sawlogs or veneer blocks first. He might cut slack cooperage blocks or cross ties next, and finally make pulp- wood and fuel from the tops.
Landowners, brokers, foresters, loggers, sawyers, suppliers, coopers, merchants, advertisers, machinists and government regulators in America all expressed a common notion of cut slack as lower acceptable quality standard. When a merchant said to his cooper, "Make me a slack [barrel]," they both understood that the quality expectation was significantly less than a tight barrel. When a cooper said to his supplier, "Bring me some slack [staves]," they both understood that the quality expectation was significantly less than tight staves. When the supplier said to his sawyer, "Cut me some slack [stock]," they both understood that the quality expectation was significantly less than tight stock. When the sawyer said to his logger, "Cut me some slack [logs]," they both understood that the quality expectation was significantly less than tight logs.
Advertisers made clear distinctions between all things tight and all things slack. Machinists designed and built separate mills to cut slack cooperage materials:
Cooperage: A Treatise on Modern Shop Practice and Methods, 1910, Page 194
Mills for the manufacture of slack stock are of various types...
The Federal Government established separate regulations for knife-cut slack staves.
In America, at least nine extensive interrelated industries were routinely exposed to the literal expression: cut slack with the connotation of acceptably lower quality standards. The cultural significance of cooperage from the 18th through 20th centuries supports a legitimate assumption:
A a metaphorical application of the prevalent cooperage expression:
- "Cut me/you/him/us/them some slack [X]."
intuitively becomes:
- A lower standard is acceptable.
This is precisely what people mean when they say, "Cut me some slack!" metaphorically:
Your tight adherence to a higher standard is not necessary; a lower standard is acceptable!
The cooperage metaphor cannot be sited conclusive as the source of "Cut me some slack," but at minimum, the cooperage lingo extensively supported and reinforce the intuitive metaphorical application of cut slack in the culture, making the set phrase more suitable as an idiomatic catch phrase.
Currently in Google Book search, the earliest confirmed use of "Cut [x] some slack" was the testimony of a young person explaining his perception of police aggression, transcribed in 1966:
Field Surveys - Issue 4, Volume 2 - Page 133
Just the colored cop will do all the, you know, raising sand... Other cop[s] will just sit back, you know. And he'll try and cut you some slack, but the colored cop won't, you know.
Emphasis mine
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~flbbm/heritage/cooper/barrelmaking.htm
Solution 2:
One early match in a Google Books search for "cut me some slack" occurs in a glossary purportedly from Jack Sweetman, The U.S. Naval Academy, an Illustrated History (1979) [snippet]:
Slack — reduced discipline; see Cut (Me) Some Slack.
Unfortunately, we can't see "Cut (Me) Some Slack" because the book refuses to show a snippet view of that entry. And further research leads me to suspect that the snippet shown is actually from a mid-1990s edition of Ross MacKenzie, Brief Points, which (unlike Sweetman's book) does have a glossary of Naval Academy terms.
In any event, the sense of cut in this instance appears to be meaning 15.a. in J. E. Lighter, Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang (1994):
15.a. to favor with; to give. [Example:] 1972–76 Durden No Bugles 8: Aw, Sarge, cut us a break.
So "cut me some slack" = "favor me with reduced discipline" in 1970s (or 1990s) Middie-speak.
Robert Chapman & Barbara Kipfer, Dictionary of American Slang, third edition (1995) says "cut ... a break" was in use "by 1970s" and "cut ... some slack" was "1980s." That book interprets "cut [someone] some slack" as meaning "To stop pressuring or importuning someone; let someone be."
I haven't found any reference work that offers an explanation of what "cut some slack" might have meant originally, with actual slack and actual cutting in play. It is common for people working together on a rope to urge one another to "leave some slack" in the rope when possible, but I haven't come across any formal confirmation of this usage in connection with "cut ... some slack."
The Random House slang dictionary has only examples of "cut [someone] a break," not "cut [someone] some slack," but the meaning of the two phrases seems to be extremely similar.
Early confirmed Google Books matches
Another oldish Google Books match is from Revista Chicano-Riqueña, volume 7 (1979):
TERESA: I'm going to miss you, you big tonto. MANOLO: Who's tonto? TERESA: You are. MANOLO: Cut me some slack, mujer. TERESA: Tonto.
...
MANOLO: Chale. I don't care about that. DOMINGO: But there are doctors and clinics... MANOLO: ¡Ya! I said no! DOMINGO: Then why don't you go along with el Louie? MANOLO: Cut me some slack will you? DOMINGO: You're scared aren't you? I can see you are scared.
Earlier still is this extract from Wyoming Highway Department Public Information Office, The Roadrunner (1976) [combined snippets]:
...the officer cut him some slack. Then he went on to say how poorly he was treated and how tight the handcuffs were and how they hurt his wrists. He commented that he was peaceful and didn't need to be cuffed. He went on about how he had how he had to take the time to go to Cheyenne to appear in court and the money it cost him, etc.
By this time, I'm sure you can see why my heart was breaking in two for the guy. I let him have his say, and then proceeded to set the record straight.
And from Flying, volume 98 (1976) [combined snippets]:
Someone else had once taught me that good pilots don't accept a descent from ATC unless they are ready for it and know where they are. There are a lot of hard mountains in that area, fellas, so when we ask you to assure us of terrain clearance—we know it's still our responsibility to know that in spite of that nasty TWA mess—but cut us some slack, huh?
Neither of the 1976 magazine dates is definite, but both are circumstantially plausible. Several earlier would-be matches are clearly incorrectly dated in the Google Books database.
Early confirmed newspaper database matches
An Elephind newspaper database search finds five matches involving "cut [someone] some slack" from the 1970s—one from 1978, one from 1977, two from 1975, and one from 1972.
From "Reader Supports Driver; Backs Humorus Comment," in the [Kent, Ohio] Daily Kent Stater (May 31, 1978):
So, the next time you use the convenience of riding a campus bus, before you get on, cut the driver some slack. Maybe he’s more human than you think. (Anyway, if you’re at all good-looking, maybe he’s checking you out, too!)
From John Marchese, "Marijuana Use in Dormitories," in the [Denton, Texas] North Texas Daily (February 18, 1977):
"The first time I catch someone, I cut him some slack. If I catch him again then I'll have to take him to the director of housing."
Other dormitories are not so lenient, but most RAs "cut some slack" on the first offense.
From "Early Out During Xmas," in the [Temple, Texas] Fort Hood Sentinel (December 4, 1975):
Reserve component personnel undergoing active training and officers involuntarily separating on specified dates as directed by DA [Department of the Army] will separate regardless of the policy.
The policy, however, cuts some slack for local commands. Officers who are involved in priority operations may be retained until their normal ETS [expiration of term of service] date if it is necessary.
From "Misclassifieds," in the [Houston, Texas] Rice Thresher (April 24, 1975):
Rob—cut me some slack!—Graz.
Leiter—Cut me some slack.— Rob.
And from "Smoking Dopes," in the [State College, Pennsylvania] Daily Collegian (November 9, 1972):
I suppose the reader may be asking himself, "doesn't this guy appreciate a cheap drunk; a chance to get up on quality hash for free; an opportunity to groove on Isaac [Hates], while getting vicariously stoned? "At the risk of sounding like an ingrate" —Hell no, I keenly resent it!
I see three possible means of rectifying this respiratory rape:
- Students attending concerts can cut the non-heads in attendance some slack by leaving their "J's" at home instead of ruthlessly bludgeoning these fellow students into submission with them.
These five instances from 1972–1978 (all of which come from U.S. university or military base sources) seem to use the expression "cut [someone] a break" in the still-current sense of "go easy on [someone]," "be lenient with [someone]," or "give [someone] someone some leeway."
And finally, as Jacob Lyles points out in a comment beneath this answer, a list of new expressions in Idioma, volumes 5–6 (1968), page 58, includes this entry (and translation):
Hey, man, cut me some slack. [Translation:] Hey, buddy, take it easy.
A more accurate translation of this wording might be "Hey, buddy, loosen up on me."
Solution 3:
GIVE ME SOME SLACK
Still very much in use today and probably thought by most people as being relatively modern in origin, the phrase ‘give me some slack’ or ‘cut me some slack’ (meaning make allowances to complete something) is actually hundreds of years old. Tying a ship to a pier was no easy feat and took two teams of men armed with mooring lines. As one line was pulled to haul the ship closer the other line was released or ‘given slack’. The process would go on until the ship was properly aligned.
http://www.harbourguides.com/news.php/NAUTICAL-SAYINGS-CUT-ME-SOME-SLACK