signing my life away

[iwonder]

Where did the saying "I'm signing my life away" come from. I work in an insurance office and there's alot of paperwork to sign and I must hear people say this at least 10 times a day!

[Postdog]

Surely it's what people do when they sign for things like insurance and mortgages etc. I really have no idea, but maybe from the old days when a youngster took an apprenticeship and had to sign something (debentures I think) and in effect what they were doing was commiting their life to that trade.

[Quizmonster]

I'm sure Postdog is on the right lines with the 'apprenticeship' idea above. Certainly, the times I myself most frequently heard the phrase was in the days of National Service. Conscripted men were often encouraged to serve for longer than the two years they had to. Many did, only to be told by those who chose not to that they were "signing their lives away"...ie literally committing extra chunks of their life to military service. Of course, once you are in the military, large areas of your life are out of your control.

[Ethel]

It's from the old days of the press gang, when drunken men would be 'kidnapped', taken aboard ship and encouraged to sign a piece of paper committing themselves to years of service aboard ship.

Of course, mostly they were illiterate and had no idea what they were making their mark on or why.

There was a very high mortality rate at that time, so they were very often signing their life away.

[jno]

perhaps from Faust, in which the lead character sold his soul to the devil?