KEEP A STIFF UPPER LIP

The phrase means to remain resolute and unemotional or show courage in the face of adversity, or even tragedy and has traditionally been used to describe an attribute of British people in remaining bold and impassive in times of crises.

Example: ‘I know you’re upset about losing the game, but keep a stiff upper lip.’ Or, ‘She kept a stiff upper lip throughout the funeral’.

The ideal of the stiff upper lip can be traced back to the Spartans of ancient Greece, whose cult of discipline and self-sacrifice was a source of inspiration to the English public school system during the Victorian era and to the Stoics. Such schools were heavily influenced by stoicism, and aimed to instil a code of discipline in their students through competitive sports, corporal punishments and cold showers.

In 1963, P G Wodehouse published a novel Stiff Upper Lip, Jeeves.

Despite strong association with the UK, there are indications that the phrase originated in the US. One of the earliest known references to the phrase was in the Massachusetts Spy, June 1815: “I kept a stiff upper lip, and bought [a] license to sell my goods.”

That citation doesn’t explicitly refer to keeping one’s emotions in check, but a slightly later one, from the Ohio newspaper The Huron Reflector, 1830, makes the meaning unambiguous:

‘I acknowledge I felt somehow queer about the bows; but I kept a stiff upper lip, and when my turn came, and the Commodore of the Police axed [sic] me how I come to be in such company... I felt a little better.” There are many more US references found from early 19th century, and by mid-century it became quite common, while the earliest British reference reported is from 1844.