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Come cleanMeaningTo make a full disclosure; to confess. Origin'Come clean' originated in the USA in either the late 19th or early 20th century. The earliest example that I have found of it in print is from the Moberly Evening Democrat, August 1904:
The unnamed journalist who wrote that must have liked the phrase, as it appears several times in the same paper from around that time and before I can find it elsewhere. It's possible that the phrase was coined in Moberly, but that's just conjecture. 'Come' is clearly just a shortening of 'become'; 'clean' means 'not sullied by untruth', as in the earlier phrases 'make a clean breast of it' and 'keep one's hands clean'. Phrasefinder is also on
Tudor Phrases and Sayings - a book on the meanings and origins of the phrases and sayings that Shakespeare and Henry VIII used that we use still use every day. |
