Origin and Real Meaning for “Good Enough for Government Work”

In this episode you discover the origin and true original meaning of “Good enough for government work” You also learn how the meaning changed completely during ensuing years from it’s first use in the early 1900s.
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Host:

Stephen Carter. Email contact: [e-mail].
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Sources:

From A History of the Canadian Parliament (the phrase's first appearance is in Parliamentary records on June 8th, 1906) and The Project of War: American Culture During World War 2.

Source: " https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/9lt9hi/good_enough_for_government_work_when_did_the/
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Origin of close-enough-for-government-work


- "Government work" is also a term for the manufacture of something on company time for personal use. For example, a custom trailer hitch made at a welding shop for the welder himself on the afternoon shift with no supervisors around is government work. Commonly heard in Ontario, Canada and northeast U.S.

From Wiktionary

- Originated in World War II. When something was "good enough for Government work" it meant it could pass the most rigorous of standards. Over the years it took on an ironic meaning that is now the primary sense, referring to poorly executed work.
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Good enough for government work and close enough for government work are both American idioms to describe something that is merely adequate, something that meets the bare minimum standards, something that is subpar. The expressions good enough for government work and close enough for government work have a surprising origin. Around the turn of the century, the terms were used to mean something of high quality or something that was the best of the best. This definition of good enough for government work and close enough for government work may have persisted through World War II, though some believe this is the time when the meaning of the expressions began to change. By the 1960s and 1970s, good enough for government work and close enough for government work came to mean the exact opposite of their original definitions.
Source:
https://grammarist.com/idiom/good-enough-for-government-work-and-close-enough-for-government-work/#more-34113
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Technical information:

Recorded and initial edits using Audacity. Additional edits with Twisted Wave. Leveling with Auphonic.

Microphone: EV RE320
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