The first person to say “against the grain” was lying. Not figuratively. He was coaching other people to lie, and the phrase was the lie.
On this episode of Appraise The Phrase, Mario and Twenty are joined by Kayla, founder of Kinara Bookstore in Tulsa, to unveil the origin, confirm the meaning, and assess the value of “go against the grain.” It debuts in Shakespeare's Coriolanus around 1607, in the mouth of Sicinius — a tribune coaching Roman citizens to claim they'd been pressured into their vote, and that speaking up went against the grain. They were doing exactly what authority wanted. The first recorded figurative use of the phrase describes someone going with the grain. Mario's name for it is inverted debut.
And the carpentry story everyone repeats? Every source on earth says this comes from woodworking. Gary Martin appears to be the only person who actually checked, and none of the early citations reference wood at all — the carpentry explanation only shows up after Shakespeare. It's not what you know. It's what you can prove.
Also: why the play itself is about grain, how a phrase gets rationalized backwards, what clickbait did to writing, and Kayla on opening a bookstore in the gap left when Tulsa's only Black bookstore closed.
Value is in the eye of the appraiser.
0:00 Gladiator, Holograms, And What You Can Prove
0:51 The ATP Intro Theme
2:30 Introducing Our Guest
3:44 Kayla On Founding Kinara Bookstore In Tulsa
7:17 Who Decides What The Rules Are?
15:11 Confirm The Meaning: Merriam-Webster
18:11 Twenty Would Have Written It Differently
22:28 Unveil The Origin: 1607, Coriolanus
23:33 Our First Hologram Guest Should Be Shakespeare
23:53 Sicinius, The Tribune, And The Coached Lie
25:47 The Play Is Literally About Grain: The Corn Riot
28:34 Inverted Debut: The First Use Was Inauthentic
33:47 Kayla Does Not Fly Southwest
37:54 Every Source On Earth Says Carpentry
38:45 Gary Martin Is The Only One Who Checked
39:51 Retroactive Etymological Rationalization
42:16 Seed Oils, And Things That Sound True
44:34 What Clickbait Did To Writing
51:39 Is Any Of This Real? Clickbait Meets AI
53:20 À Rebours, Bad Religion, And Garth Brooks
55:44 Evaluative Reversal: When The Act Stops Mattering
57:36 Do You Own “Going Against The Grain”?
58:44 Building A Space For Us, By Us
1:00:40 Twenty: Save The Last Dance
1:04:23 The Phrase As A Banner People Wave
1:08:23 The Appraisal: Power
1:11:12 Speed
1:12:07 Preference, Handed To The Guest
1:13:31 Dictionary Of Misinformation
1:15:04 The Kremlin Is Not A Building
1:16:11 Where To Find Kinara Bookstore
1:17:43 Shop, Credits, And Where To Find Us
REFERENCED IN THIS EPISODE
William Shakespeare, Coriolanus (c. 1607–08) · Plutarch, via North's translation · Merriam-Webster · Dictionary.com · Gary Martin, Phrase Finder · J.-K. Huysmans, À rebours (1884), published in English as Against the Grain · Bad Religion, Against the Grain (1990) · Garth Brooks, “Against the Grain,” written by Bruce Bouton, Larry Cordle and Carl Jackson · Marion Nestle, NYU · Gladiator (2000) · Training Day (2001) · Save the Last Dance (2001)
GUEST: Kayla, founder of Kinara Bookstore — Tulsa's pop-up bookstore centering Black, brown, queer and disabled readers. Instagram, Threads and TikTok @kinara.books · kinarabookstore.com
COMMENT: Have you ever actually gone against the grain, or did you just say you did? And settle this for us — open seating or assigned?
ATP SHOP — every phrase gets a grade. Some of them get a mug.
appraisethephrase.com/shop
THE BRACKET — the board keeps filling. Tournament comes March 2027.
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