safety first
A maxim or slogan inculcating the necessity of taking precautions for the avoidance of accident. Also attrib.; occas. applied to the safest kinds of investment.
Various safety-first campaigns (in factories, schools, etc.) were organized in Britain in the early twentieth cent. The slogan is said to derive from the American railway industry (see Encycl. Brit. (1926) III. 446). It was widely used as a slogan in Conservative election posters in 1922 and (with reference to Stanley Baldwin) in 1929.
| 1873 Cassell's Mag. Nov. 71/2 A system that would go on the motto of safety first. 1914 G. M. Price Mod. Factory 138 Corporations which have within the last five years taken up the slogan of ‘safety first’ and have done great work in accident prevention. 1924 J. S. C. Bridge Hist. France II. 118 The so-called battles were conducted under the rules of a carefully framed code, of which ‘safety first’ was the unacknowledged watchword and inspiration. 1927 [see narrow-beamed s.v. narrow a. 7]. 1927 Daily Mail 5 Aug. 3/1 (heading) Rising ‘Safety First’ Stocks. 1931 Daily Mirror 27 Aug. 4 These and other safety first signs are being introduced all over the Dominion. 1932 Daily Mail 2 July 3/1 The volume of business transacted in ‘safety-first’ stocks was probably not so large as earlier in the week. 1936 A. Christie Cards on Table xiii. 130 The moment you begin..adopting as your motto ‘Safety First’—you might as well be dead. 1944 Living off Land iii. 61 Where the ground appears to be in the least unsafe, it should always be timbered as an essential ‘safety-first’ principle. 1953 Earl Winterton Orders of Day xi. 153 Mr Davidson was accused by many Conservatives, at least in private, of being responsible for the defeat of the Government and the invention of the Party's election slogan, ‘Safety First’. 1964 S. Duke-Elder Parsons' Dis. Eye (ed. 14) xxvi. 377 Every attempt should be made by the provision of comfortable goggles and by educative means, such as ‘Safety First’ notices. 1965 A. J. P. Taylor Eng. Hist. 1914–1945 viii. 282 The cause had a strong appeal for many Conservatives who wanted something more exciting than Baldwin's Safety First. 1977 J. Wainwright Nest of Rats i. ix. 64 The Koh-i-noor's twin sister... The glitter deserving of all that sophisticated safety-first garbage. |
Hence safety-ˈfirster, a person unwilling to take risks.
| 1928 Daily Express 19 Nov. 5 Many women would dislike the uncertainty, so the safety-firster, the shy, the unadaptable, and the disliker of change should keep their permanent posts and be thankful they have them. 1929 E. Linklater Poet's Pub. xi. 140 You're trying to persuade me to be cowardly and middle-aged, a safety-firster. |