Query origin "number is up"

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Please excuse me as a newbie if this topic is done to death ... I couldn't find anything relevant by way of searching or the FAQ.

What is the origin of the slang phrase "His number is up", meaning he is either dead or fated for death?
I had always understood that it was WW II RAF flying jargon, coming from the numbers of missing pilots being posted on a board. However, I came across the phrase in John Buchan's "The Thirty-nine Steps" (p. 39, bottom in my ed.), published in 1915 and presumably written in 1914-15, surely before the RFC used the idiom or it became popular therefrom.
Any takers?

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(Email Removed), Tony P (Email Removed) writes
[nq:1]Please excuse me as a newbie if this topic is done to death ... I couldn't find anything relevant by ... 1915 and presumably written in 1914-15, surely before the RFC used the idiom or it became popular therefrom. Any takers?[/nq]
I would have thought it refers to a draw in a raffle or a lottery. If "your number comes up", it is the one lifted out of the hat (or whatever), and you win a prize. The same principle is being applied to the chance selection of life or death. Unfortunately, those whose number comes up lose! But I don't know when this expression started.
Ian

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[nq:1]Please excuse me as a newbie if this topic is done to death ... I couldn't find anything relevant by ... 1915 and presumably written in 1914-15, surely before the RFC used the idiom or it became popular therefrom. Any takers?[/nq]
OED has several. Here are the first three cites, each later one having a slightly better claim than its predecessor(s)
1806 C. Lamb Let. 25 Jan. in Works (1870) II. 89 Though this is a lottery towhich none but G. Barnett would choose to trust his all, there is no harm just to call in at Despair's office for a friend, and see if his number is come up. 1899 C. Rook Hooligan Nights iv. 56 You couldn't tallygraft to Billy no more. His number's up awright, wiv no error. 1914 London Opinion XL. 231/2 The late Patsey Cadogan, who left £100,000 when his number went up.
The relevant sub-entry reads:
d. With reference to a lottery number, or some other number by or with which one may be identified, as an army number, esp. in fig. phr. one's number is (or has gone) up, one is doomed (to die), one's time is come, one is 'done for'; one's number is on (something, esp. a bullet or shell), one is doomed (to die, or to a particular destiny).

John Dean
Oxford

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Please excuse me as a newbie if this topic is ... used the idiom or it became popular therefrom. Any takers?[/nq]
[nq:1]I would have thought it refers to a draw in a raffle or a lottery. If "your number comes up", ... selection of life or death. Unfortunately, those whose number comes up lose! But I don't know when this expression started.[/nq]
OED on "number":
P4. colloq. one's number is up and variants (with reference to the number on a person's lottery ticket, or some other number by which a person may be identified, as an army number): one's time (to die, etc.) has come, one is finished or doomed. See also Phrases 8.
1804 C. LAMB Let. 25 Jan. in Lett. C. & M. A. Lamb (1976) II. 130Though this is a lottery to which none but G. Barnett would chuse to trust his all, there is no harm just to call in at Despair's office for a friend, and see if his number is come up.
P8. colloq. (orig. Mil.). to have a person's number on it: (of a bullet, shell, etc.) to be destined to strike or kill that person (see quot. 1965)..
1917 A. G. EMPEY Over Top 312 He knows that it is only a matter ofminutes before a German shell with his name and number on it will be knocking at his door.
..

1965 J. BROPHY & E. PARTRIDGE Long Trail 154 Number On, a fatalisticbut consolatory superstition insisted that no man need fear any bullet or shell, however close it came, unless it had his regimental number (or his name and number) engraved on it.

Peter Duncanson, UK
(in alt.english.usage)

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]OED on "number": P4. colloq. one's number is up and variants (with reference to the number on a person's lottery ... or shell, however close it came, unless it had his regimental number (or his name and number) engraved on it.[/nq]
There's also the similar expression "Every bullet has a billet" (meaning that it is either pre-destined for you, or it isn't). It must be old. One Google hit claims that Henry III used it.

Ian

Query origin "number is up"

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