How did "sand" come to mean courage/pluck?

Why do you find World Wide Words’ explanation (“it is an obvious enough synonym”) unconvincing?

Oxford English Dictionary (login required) indicates that sand is used in the sense of the earlier grit (meaning pluck, stamina). (See the note at sand: Cf. GRIT n.¹ 5.) . . .

sand, n.²
7. slang.
b. Chiefly U.S. Firmness of purpose; pluck, stamina. sand in one’s craw. Cf. GRIT n.¹ 5.
_{[selected
examples, including earliest noted]}
_{1867 G. W.
HARRIS Sut Lovingood 102 I tell yu he hes lots ove san’ in
his gizzard; he is the best pluck I ever seed.}
_{1872
Newton Kansan 5 Dec. 3/3 We hope to see Mr.
Pettibone with sufficient ‘sand in his craw’ for this new position
[sc. police judge].}
_{. . .}
_{1881
N.Y. Times 18 Dec. in Notes & Queries 6th Ser. 5 65/2 Sand. To have ‘sand in one’s craw’; to be determined and plucky.
Equivalent to ‘grit’.}
_{. . .}
_{1884
‘M. TWAIN’ Adventures Huckleberry Finn viii. 65 When I got
to camp I warn’t feeling very brash, there warn’t much sand in my
craw.}
_{1924 J. GALSWORTHY Forest iv. ii. 120
By Jove, Mr. Farrell, there’s sand in you. Tell me, isn’t he
ever ashamed of himself?}

Here’s the cf.:

grit, n.¹
5. colloquial.
a. Originally U.S. slang. Firmness or solidity of character; indomitable spirit or pluck; stamina. to be clear grit, hard (etc.) grit: to have genuine spirit or pluck. to be the grit: to be the ‘right sort’, the genuine ‘article’.
_{[selected examples,
including earliest noted]}
_{1825 J. NEAL Brother
Jonathan III. 386 Proper fellow he was too; ‘cute enough, I
tell you—sharp as a razor—clear grit.}
_{. . .}
_{1863 N. HAWTHORNE Our Old Home II. 179 His main
deficiency was a lack of grit.}
_{. . .}
_{1892 Times 23 Apr. 7/1 Every appointment of the
kind must be based wholly upon fitness and grit.}

Sand has been slang for courage since the mid-1800s. Here are a few instances:

1847 [US] J.S. Robb Streaks of Squatter Life 73: He set his brain to work conning a most powerful speech, one that would knock the sand from under Hoss.

c.1858 [US] J.H. Green Reformed Gambler 121: I tell you, I never had the sand so knocked from under me before in my life. If you preach in that way, there wont be many of us gamblers left on this boat.

But with the same sense grit has an older usage, from which the figurative meaning of sand may probably derive:

Grit:

(US) solidity or strength of character, spirit, pluck, stamina; thus be the grit v., to be the ‘right sort’ of person, to be the ‘genuine article’.

1808 D. Hitchcock Poet. Dict. 53: The prude doats on beauty, the bully on grit [DA].

1809 [US] A.B. Lindsley Yankee Notions 10: ’E’s proper stuff; clear grit, I swow!

1825 [US] J. Neal Brother Jonathan II 14: A chap who was clear grit for a tussle, any time.

(Green’s Dictionary of Slang)

How did "sand" come to mean courage/pluck?

Related

Recent Posts