take the plunge
take the plunge (idiom / metaphor)
/teɪk ðə plʌndʒ/
Meanings
- To make a bold or risky decision, often after hesitation.
- To commit to something significant, such as marriage, a new job, or a major life change.
- To suddenly engage in a significant or irreversible decision.
- To dive suddenly into water. (literal)
Synonyms: dare; commit; risk; venture; embark; dive in.
Example Sentences
- After months of doubt, she decided to take the plunge and start her own company.
- They finally chose to take the plunge and get married in the spring.
- He finally took the plunge and proposed to his partner, despite his fears.
- On a scorching afternoon, he ran to the pool and took the plunge without a second thought. (literal)
Variants
- took the plunge
- taking the plunge
- plunged in
- make the plunge (less common)
Origin and History
Lexical Ancestry and Literal Sense
The verb plunge is an old borrowing from French (Old French plonger, from Vulgar Latin roots) and entered English in the Middle Ages with literal senses of thrusting, immersing, or falling heavily (for example, into water). Those literal meanings produced a range of physical images—diving, falling, immersing—that later supplied metaphors for sudden or decisive action.
How the Figurative Sense Developed
There are two complementary explanatory strands in the literature. First, a direct metaphorical-development account: because plunge already described sudden immersion or a hard fall, speakers extended the image to non-physical decisions—i.e., “to plunge into an undertaking” = to commit energetically to it. Etymological surveys record this figurative transfer by the early 19th century. Second, a cultural-practice account: frequent references in 18th–19th-century writing to bathing, river-jumping, and daring aquatic feats provided vivid cultural imagery (and public anecdotes) that reinforced the link between literal jumping/diving and daring life choices. Both accounts are reflected in reference work commentary.
Country of Origin
The evidence points to the idiom arising within English-language usage (that is, British/Anglo-American literary circulation), rather than being a calque from another modern language. Early citations and the records that track first uses treat take the plunge as an English idiom whose figurative sense becomes visible in the late Georgian / early Victorian period. Given the primary documentary traces (18th–19th century print culture centered in Britain and its Anglophone world), the most defensible answer is that the phrase first crystallized in English-language usage in Britain (and then circulated into American print).
Earliest Printed Records
Etymological sources differ slightly on the earliest attested figurative occurrence: some sources record a figurative sense of take the plunge by 1823 and suggest earlier figurative groundwork in 18th-century prose. Other historical entries record the “first known use” for the idiom in 1840. Contemporary records therefore place the idiom’s first clear appearances in early-to-mid-19th-century print; some scholars cite isolated figurative examples as early as the 1820s, while clearer newspaper and book instances appear by about 1840. In short: earliest figurative attestations ≈ 1823; first widely citable examples in print ≈ 1840.
Summary of the Competing Claims
- Claim (1823 earliest figurative use): based on etymological synthesis that tracks figurative senses of plunge and isolated early examples; plausible and conservative about figurative development.
• Claim (1840 first known use as a fixed idiom): based on first-use evidence drawn from digitized corpora and newspaper archives; stronger when one requires a clearly idiomatic, lexicalized citation.
Origin Conclusion
Take the plunge is an English idiom that developed by metaphorical extension from the long-established verb plunge (Old French origin). The figurative sense—”to commit to a bold or risky action”—was in use by the early 19th century; etymologists identify figurative instances by about 1823, while other records mark a clear printed idiomatic occurrence around 1840. The phrase therefore originated within English-language usage in Britain/the Anglophone world rather than being a recent loan from another modern language.
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