GtO2, Hit the Hay

Since it not unusual to stay during vacancies in a "hay hotel" in Germany, since it has been literally the fact in some youth hostels a couple of years ago ...

Hi Walter,

The source I found for this expression doesn't mention hotels in Germany.

I'm beginning to get the feeling that many of these expressions have many sources. It just might be that there are few definitive answers, unless something can be traced back to a specific instance.

Well, I know that mattresses used to be stuffed with straw or hay - "hay hotels" are rooms on farms, where you sleep in hay (or straw).

Indoor bedding ticking was usually filled with straw rather than hay--straw was both fluffier and less expensive.

Hay was usually stored in a barn loft or hay mow where it made a fine and private place for dodging work or making love or housing overflow (or uninvited) guests.

The alliteration of "hit the hay" has "sack out on the straw" beat all hollow.

I can remember courtesy cousins of my grandparents generation ignoring any comment that began with "Hey...." and announcing, "Hay is for horses, not for children."

According to my source, Hit the Hay has nothing to do with farms or barns.

Well, using any possible online source, I can't provide better than

"Slang phrase hit the hay (pre-1880) was originally "to sleep in a barn."

The Answer

I suspect that this answer is just one answer. My source says that the term Hit the Hay is naval in origin. Back in the old days, sailors had to furnish their own bedding. Sailing outfitters sold hay stuffed into canvas covers. When sailors purchased this, they asked for a hay. So when they were tired and planned to go to sleep, they said they were going to hit the hay.

Personally I think noddy hit the nail on the head.

Roberta

Usually, sailors "in the old days" used hammocks.

(A nice story from the times of the Nelson period: "Wake up call on a ship in harbour was usually: "Show a leg! Out and down! Show a leg!" If a smooth leg was stuck out of a hammock, it meant there was a woman there and they were left in peace. A hairy leg and the sailor was "down" - the lashings on his hammock cut so he would fall out. " http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/nelson_1.shtml]

Roberta--

I agree with Walter about the hammocks. Remember in the days of sailing vessels, space was very limited and the hammocks were rolled up when not in use.

Further, a hammock swings with the ship. A berth--padded with hay or with the finest goosedown--does not. A padded berth does provide refuge for

lice, fleas, bedbugs and other vermin.

Also, hay has always been expensive compared to straw. Of course it is possible that your hypothetical sailors were such city boys that they didn't know the difference between hay and straw, but petty officers have always been very interested in educating the hapless seamen for whom they are responsible.

In the days of a livery stable on ever corner, even city boys could have had many chances to see horses enjoying breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Noddy

The more you go back in time, the more people will have known the difference between hay and straw!

Your noted reasons against straw/hay are those I know, additional perhaps "water". (Ever slept on wet hay?)

Your comments all make perfect sense. I'm gonna throw my source in the garbage. So much for experts.

In the American Revolution new, unsophisticated recruits literally didn't know "right" from "left". They were taught to march in step with wisps of straw and hay tied to their boots. The drill sergeant would chant, "Hay foot. Straw foot."

Except I've always wondered why wisps were necessary on both feet.

Roberta--

Often the "experts" are just young twerps trying to be clever rather than historians or verbal scholars.