Learn English – Origin of “hang tight”

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What is the origin of "hang tight"? When did it first appear in the American lexicon? It's meaning is well defined:

To remain in one's current location.

To wait patiently.

Checking Etymonline shows origins for "hang" and "tight":

hang — Teen slang sense of "spend time" first recorded 1951; hang around "idle, loiter" is from 1828, American English; also compare hang out. To hang back "be reluctant to proceed" is from 1580s; phrase hang an arse "hesitate, hold back" is from 1590s. Verbal phrase hang fire (1781) originally was used of guns that were slow in communicating the fire through the vent to the charge. To let it all hang out "be relaxed and uninhibited" is from 1967.

tight — From 1670s as an adverb; to sit tight is from 1738; sleep tight as a salutation in sending someone off to bed is by 1871.

Is "hang tight" just a simple combination of previous meanings that eventually became its own idiom? A few informal sources suggest it originated in surfing communities but it seemed like speculation.

Best Answer

"Hang tight" goes back to at least 1901:

Hang tight, my friends ! Hang tight ! Hang tight ! " said he, when, suddenly, one near the top, in the agitation of the moment, began to sneeze, lost his hold, and down the whole string, hundreds of them, fell, and were completely flattened out

Or is it 1879?

Hang tight. Good —. What I Thank God! Thank God I We are saved ! Saved ! Saved ! Bertha we are saved !

Or maybe 1854?

“Hold on, brave spars; hang tight, good rope; a whole life now rests on every strand.”

Clearly it refers to holding on, either actually or metaphorically.

By 1922 the metaphorical meaning was becoming more common:

The mere fact that prices of raw furs are advancing is the best indication of a business revival. It is a well-known fact that the buying public hang tight to their cash on a falling market.

And that sense more or less carried through to 2016:

And so they were going to wait until they're retired or semi-retired in their cubical-land day job that they don't enjoy. They're going to hang tight. Then the recession happened and they sure as hell were going to hang tight.” Kurth has changed his business model and renamed it PivotPlanet. After the 2008 recession, business dropped off precipitously.

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