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In his online article on the origin and development of the word stemwinder, Michael Quinion does his customary excellent and complete job--except for the final point that he makes. After showing how the term originated in the mid-nineteenth century as wristwatch technology developed (from a key wind to a stem wind), he went on to illustrate how the term gradually morphed by the end of the 19th century to refer to anything which was excellent or of high quality. Around that time it also became associated with a powerful or persuasive political speech, and that is how stemwinder has largely been understood until our own day. Then, he gave one quotation from 2001 where he showed an alternative "reading" of the term--to refer to a ponderous, dull, and boringly long manner of speaking. But that is where he stopped. He didn't investigate how it was that something could become its opposite in our lifetimes, nor did he posit when this more precisely happened--both of which are the bread and butter of language-lovers. The purpose of this essay is to "finish" his essay, by showing how the term stemwinder has taken on the connotation of an endless, and therefore boring, political oration.

My point will be that the term stemwinder as a negative term to describe a political oration arose in the wake of Bill Clinton's overlong 1988 nominating speech of Michael Dukakis for President. What is fascinating, however, is not that the term stemwinder grew up immediately in the wake of Clinton's speech but only as people began to write about it in subsequent years. When people began to write about his speech years later, they contrasted it with Mario Cuomo's rousing endorsement of Walter Mondale at the 1984 Democratic convention. That speech was called a "real stemwinder" by journalists at the time (1984). Hence, my argument will be that the negative connotation of stemwinder as a boring political speech arose when Clinton's rhetoric was compared with the real stemwinding speaker, Cuomo. Thus, the term was born in irony, and now it lives with as much vigor as the mother which gave it birth. So, here is my "supplemental" or "alternative" history of stemwinder.

A Nineteenth Century Ad

I can't improve on Quinion's account of the origin of the term. It arose in the development of clock/watch technology in the mid-nineteenth century. But I can improve on the OED. The first OED attestation for stemwinder comes in 1875, and it bears this technological connotation: "Some of the stem-winders are so constructed that by pushing in the pendant it is..." I can push back the use of the term one year. From p. 5 of the Sept. 18, 1874 edition of the NY Times, we have the following advertisement: "Waltham Watches": "A new Waltham Watch for laides is now ready for sale. It is a stem-winder of small size and most excellent quality, and the price so low that it is beyond competition." Someone, please, let the OED know...

An interesting story appeared in the NY Times of Oct. 10, 1909. A certain Morris M. Silverman, 73 years old, was robbed by a man who seemingly tried to assist him. What was taken? Mr. Silverman's watch. "The watch, according to Mr. Silverman, is the first stem winding piece ever manufactured in Switzerland, and for this reason he valued it at far more than its actual worth." No doubt, the insurance company would be pleased to learn about Mr. Silverman's method of valuation.

By the last years of the 19th century-early 20th century, however, the word had taken on a broader meaning. Because the stemwinder watch was the "new and improved" watch of the 1870s, stemwinder became, by extension, a word associated with anything of genuine quality or power. For example, from 1892 we have "'Ain't he a stem-winder, though?' goes on the boy. 'He was the most popular man on the line when it was built.'" Or, from 1926: "He's a stem-winder and a go-getter." By the late 19th century a popular name for thoroughbreds was "Stemwinder," also. A 1939 article from the NY Times described the work of a certain singer Dolly Morse, who spent a good deal of her time poring through manuscripts of amateurs to try to identify a few "stemwinder successes" that might be useful for her own singing. A 1940 article from that same newspaper had an interview with a certain Henry Abbott, whom the newspaper credited with having the patent for the "stemwinder pocket watch," which he introduced more than 50 years previously, but I don't know more details than that.

Stemwinder as Political Speech

Even though we have references to speeches by such luminous 19th century men as Robert Ingersoll or Edward Everett as stemwinders, these references don't as far as I can tell, actually come from the period the men lived. The earliest reference I could find to a speech being referred to as a stemwinder was from a thesaurus of American slang in 1942: "Speech-maker...stemwinder... a forceful talker." It is likely that the term arose in reference to powerful political speeches only at that time and then was, as it were, projected backwards to other famous speeches of earlier days.

Even though stemwinder could still be used to describe something of great quality or extreme force (such as a 1947 story describing floods of the Missouri River as potentially becoming a "stemwinder"), the term seemed to settle into political discourse. I will close this essay by a reference to one of the big "stemwinder" political fights of 1950. The CA Democrats were trying to pick a person who would, eventually, go against Republican Richard M. Nixon. Two Democrats would most likely vie in the 1950 primary--Helen Gahagan Douglas and incumbent Sheridan Downey. As the Oct. 25, 1949 story says: "Many a Democrat pictured a Douglas-Downey battle as a 'stem-winder.'"

Conclusion

Thus, by 1950 we have the word stemwinder being used not only to describe something of outstanding quality but increasingly to refer to action in the political domain. It could refer to a contentious political battle or a stirring political speech. The next essay will bring the concept up to today, and show how, in the last 20 years, the term has come to describe something also that is a boring speech.

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