Discussion Groups / ESL Teaching / April 2005

Prepare to be bored silly.

"Ram home" comes from muzzle-loading firearms. Back in the days when
people had to shoot guns that did not load from the breech (the back
part of the barrel), guns were loaded through the muzzle. First came
the charge, then the shot. Both of them had to be pushed down the
muzzle of the gun by means of a ramrod. When they had been fully pushed
in, they were said to have been "rammed home." "Home" as a flat adverb
(not "homeLY," which means something like "ugly"), has been around in
this sense since 1548. It is used when describing a point or mark aimed
at, an ultimate position.

Interestingly enough, "ram," in the sense of beating down earth, has
been around for an even longer time, 1330. Fixing the soil around posts
in the ground by ramming has been around since 1565. Actually driving
in those posts has been around since 1519. Ramming in the sense that I,
personally, think of as the oldest when I think of the term, beating at
a door with a ram until it opens, postdates all of these uses (1599).

"Ram" as noun, the name for a male sheep, was first used in 825 A.D.

Rest assured I don't know this stuff off the top of my head. The
ultimate source of wisdom for all this kind of good stufff resides at:
http://dictionary.oed.com

Under no circumstances should an ESL student consider this resource a
must-have reference tool.

Back to our expression! From what I understand, if shooters didn't ram,
or, in a more modern sense, tamp the powder down carefully and
thoroughly, an air pocket would form down at the back of the barrel,
and there was a chance that while firing, the force of the blast would
blow back toward the cap/touch-hole and make the back of the gun barrel
explode. Our shooters would then find themselves missing important
parts of their anatomy...consequently, a good deal of care was taken
when ramming the charge home. The shot wasn't really all that
important. It was the powder that needed special care.

I was unable to discover when "ram home" acquired its metaphorical
significance, but the term "ram a point home," at some point in
history, came to mean doing to a point of discussion exactly what you
would do to a charge in a muzzleloader. You make a point in a
discussion, and then, when you reinforce it, you "ram it home," set it
into perfect position, carefully and exactly, with all due care.