'A volunteer is worth twenty pressed men'

Posted by Bruce Kahl on June 28, 2001

In Reply to: 'A volunteer is worth twenty pressed men' posted by Tom Nuttall on June 28, 2001

: Can anyone tell me about the origins of this saying?

The word "press" has about at least a half dozen meanings one of which is a verb meaning "to take by authority especially for public use".

Various militaries would "press" a person into serving in the army by physically grabbing him in the middle of the night or by serving him with a notice that he was to report for duty under threat of imprisonment.

So your phrase is an opinion stating that someone who volunteers for military duty would perform twenty times better than someone who was drafted or "pressed" into service.

• 'A volunteer is worth twenty pressed men' James Briggs 06/28/01
  • Volunteer R. Berg 06/28/01
    • Possible 18th-century origin R. Berg 06/28/01