The other night as I was making a blueberry pie for my husband, he asked me if I had ever bought ready-made pie crust. I said, "No, I always make pie crust from scratch." My husband responded, as he always does, "And you know how hard it is to get scratch these days!"

The conversation, however, set us wondering. Why do we use this expression? With a little digging, I think that I have found the source of the common but odd expression. The phrases "to make from scratch," "to start from scratch," and "up to scratch" all have their origins in the sports world. As early as 1778, the word "scratch" meant a line drawn as an indication of a boundary or starting line, as for a race or a cricket meet. In boxing, competitors had to come up to a "scratch" line to begin boxing. Thus, the term "up to scratch" came to mean that competitor was qualified and ready to begin, or up to standards.

By 1867, the term scratch also applied to the starting point in a handicap of a competitor who received no odds from scratch. Thus, an athlete starting "from scratch" was in a position of no advantage or head start. The term quickly generalized to include anyone starting anything from nothing. A young entrepreneur might launch her business from scratch, meaning that she has no start up funding or special influence.

Likewise, the term "from scratch" continued to generalize until it found its way into the kitchen, where a cook who eschewed boxed or prepared short cuts chose to make a dish "from scratch," or from nothing but the basic ingredients.

Anyone for blueberry pie?

-This Know It All was provided by Diane Andrews Henningfeld '74, associate professor of English at Adrian College. (Sources: The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: 1989.)