Idiomite

Dirt

Meaning: Incriminating information or gossip

Originated in: 🇺🇸 United States of America

Earliest attestation: The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1926)

To have dirt on someone is to know something about him that could be used against him. This information is not public, and the person would not want it to be known by others. It is usually knowledge that someone did something illegal or immoral but can just be something embarrassing. It is often advantageous for criminals to “have dirt” on someone, as it can be used to blackmail them. The phrase “digging up dirt” is often used in the context of politicians trying to find dirt on their opponents to tarnish their image in the public opinion or of tabloids trying to find semi-plausible stories to outrage the public into buying to read about it further.

The term originated to mean specifically scandalous gossip, not necessarily specific to a person or with as much implication of truth. Dirt is classically understood as something unclean and undesirable. It is easy to see how it was applied as a metaphor for a person’s faults, especially those which were swept under the rug. In a sense, dirt and mud have been used for millennia as a metaphor for sin staining someone’s otherwise clean and white character. The phrase “dirt on someone” is a much more recent development, but it is a natural extension of this metaphor.