Origin of "boilerplate" (legal fine print)

Question

"boilerplate" is the fine print (legal jargon),
the same old boring language that you skip.
2 a : standardized textb : formulaic or hackneyed language
<<<
How did the word come to mean that?
Boilerplate is (I think) the board into which
you put letters of moveable type.
So my guess is that instead of assembling new
text, certain disclaimers, etc.
(already in a boilerplate) were put in by default?

Do you Yahoo!?
SBC Yahoo! - Internet access at a great low price. http://promo.yahoo.com/sbc/

Usenet · Accepted Answer

"T. Z." schrieb im Newsbeitrag
[nq:1]"boilerplate" is the fine print (legal jargon), the same old boring language that you skip. 2 a : standardized text ... guess is that instead of assembling new text, certain disclaimers, etc. (already in a boilerplate) were put in by default?[/nq]
That's one possible derivation. Another theory is that a "boilerplate" was a sheet of metal of standard size used to make or repair boilers. Got a hole in your boiler? Weld a boilerplate over it. (It's worth remembering that derivations of phrases and sayings are often subject to debate, and nobody really knows the correct answer.)
"Boilerplate" is not just used in legal circles. If you write an e-mail to some technical support service and you get a standard response back that tells you to check this and try that even though you did exactly that before you sent the mail, because you're not stupid that's a "boilerplate response". The person at the other end has just taken a quick look at the subject header and chosen a standard "boilerplate" reply that seems roughly to fit.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Boilerplate is (I think) the board into which you put letters of moveable type.[/nq]
Not quite. In days yonder, newspapers were printed with moveable type but things like adverts were provided to the papers on a single solid plate which contained the whole advert. These plates had mounting holes at a specific spacing along the edges which resembled the removable plates that were bolted onto boilers to allow access for servicing. They became known as boilerplates. In time, the phrase came to mean any part of the paper for which the editor could not alter.

Later, lawyers cottoned onto the phrase to mean something that didn't /need/ to be changed.
Fairly confident that this is the correct origin.

Alan LeHun

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Boilerplate is (I think) the board into which you put letters of moveable type.[/nq]
[nq:1]Not quite. In days yonder, newspapers were printed with moveable type but things like adverts were provided to the papers ... onto the phrase to mean something that didn't /need/ to be changed. Fairly confident that this is the correct origin.[/nq]
Online dictionaries suggest this also.
I believe I am correct in saying that moveable type was just the first stage in producing plates which were then used for the actual printing (attached to a roller).
It seems that rather more than adverts were distributed as boiler plate.

http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/boilerplate
"syndicated or ready-to-print copy, used esp. by weekly newspapers. "

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boilerplate

In the 1890s, boilerplate was actually cast or stamped in metal ready for the printing press and distributed to newspapers around the United States. Until the 1950s, thousands of newspapers received and used this kind of boilerplate from the nation's largest supplier, the Western Newspaper Union. Some companies also sent out press releases as boilerplate so that they had to be printed as written.

Peter Duncanson
UK
(posting from u.c.l.e)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]Online dictionaries suggest this also. I believe I am correct in saying that moveable type was just the first stage in producing plates which were then used for the actual printing (attached to a roller).[/nq]
The type wasn't particularly movable - it would be linotype, each line (of an individual column) cast by the typesetting machine.

A papier-maché mould (called a flong) would be made of the page, and this would be used to cast a curved printing plate for the rotary presses.
[nq:1]It seems that rather more than adverts were distributed as boiler plate. http://www.infoplease.com/dictionary/boilerplate "syndicated or ready-to-print copy, used esp. by ... Union. Some companies also sent out press releases as boilerplate so that they had to be printed as written. [/nq]
Nothing, of course, "had to be printed as written", just as no one is forced to reproduce press releases.

John Briggs

Origin of "boilerplate" (legal fine print)

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions