Grammar Girl here.

I'm Minyeon Fogarty and last week I told you what a straw man argument is.

But I heard from a few listeners who were disappointed that I didn't explain why it's called

a straw man argument in the first place.

So that's why I'm going to start this week.

Edomology Online says that the phrase man of straw was first used to describe an imaginary

opponent in the 1620s.

Here's one of the earliest examples I could find in a Google Books search of the phrase

straw man, being used in the context of a debate.

It's in a periodical called the Chronicle published in 1878 by the students of the University

of Michigan.

And the anonymous author appears to be quoting another article from 1875, which is actually

earlier than the citations for this kind of use that are shown in Merriam Webster and

the Oxford English Dictionary.

Here's the quotation, again from 1875.

The average debater knows no finer fun than belaboring a man of straw.

How often have we heard that ambitious, disputant, in full flush of victory, fashion with his

creative tongue the silliest of all fools, the straw man?

Into the straw man's mouth are put impossible propositions.

And when he's been made to utter them, the speaker proper proceeds to show what an utter

s*** this straw man is.

It's possible that the phrase originated even earlier, but it looks like the name really

...