Where does the term saved by the bell come from?

Question

My boss (history nut) says that it comes from midevil times before people could tell you were dead or not they would put you in the ground, and they assigned a person to work the "graveyard shift". He would wait to see if any bells rang. they hooked it up where there was a string running ubder ground was attached to a bell above ground.......Saved by the bell. if you were ALIVE you would pull the string LOL thought i would share this very interesting

Answer 1

i guess your boss really IS nut after all

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Answer 2

This is boxing slang that came into being in the latter half of the 19th century. A boxer who is in danger of losing a bout can be 'saved' from defeat by the bell that marks the end of a round.

There is a widespread notion that the phrase is from the 17th century and that it describes people being saved from being buried alive by using a coffin with a bell attached. (your boss is half right)

Source(s):

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/saved…

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Answer 3

It comes from boxing. Each round of a bout lasts a certain amount of time, usually 3 minutes. If a boxer is knocked down during the round and is unable to get up before the referee counts off 10 seconds, it is a knockout and he looses the match.

If the ending bell of the round sounds before the referee reaches 10 and the boxer is able to start the next round. He has been "saved by the bell".

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Answer 4

Meaning

Saved by a last minute intervention.

Origin

This is boxing slang that came into being in the latter half of the 19th century. A boxer who is in danger of losing a bout can be 'saved' from defeat by the bell that marks the end of a round. The earliest reference to this that I can find is in the Massachusetts newspaper The Fitchburg Daily Sentinel, February 1893:

"Martin Flaherty defeated Bobby Burns in 32 rounds by a complete knockout. Half a dozen times Flaherty was saved by the bell in the earlier rounds."

There is a widespread notion that the phrase is from the 17th century and that it describes people being saved from being buried alive by using a coffin with a bell attached. The idea being that, if they were buried but later revived, they could ring the bell and be saved from an unpleasant death. The idea is certainly plausible as the fear of burial alive was and is real. Several prominent people expressed this fear when close to death themselves:

Source(s):

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/
saved-by-the-bell.html

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Answer 5

Boxing I suppose....If a boxer was getting beaten up really bad, then the bell went to end the round that would save him any more punishment..

Not sure but that makes the most sense to me.

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Answer 6

Your boss is absolutely correct. In the days before medicine was advanced enough to handle cases such as narcolepsy and coma there were many instances of people being buried before they werereally dead. a bell was attached to the top of the casket with a pullstring so the "inhabitant" could alert the mourner that he didn't agree with the arrangement. It actually did work in many cases suprisingly enough. Research "burial rites and customs"

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Answer 7

That is interesting, thanks for sharing. Unfortunately, I don't know whether that's true or not. I always just assumed it came from more modern times, like when the teacher asks you something you don't know the answer to and the bell rings and you're like "Saved by the bell!" Or from that awesome TV show, Saved By The Bell.

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