SAVED BY THE BELL

To be ‘saved by the bell’ is to be saved by a last minute intervention. This is aboxing slang that came into being in the latter half of the 19th century. A boxer who is in danger of losing a bout can be ‘saved’ from defeat by the bell that marks the end of a round.There is a widespread nition that the phrase is from the 17th century and that it describes people being saved from being buried alive by using a coffin with a bell attached.The idea being that,if they were buried but later revived,they could ring the bell and be saved from an unpleasant death.The idea is certainly plausible as the fear of burial alive was and is real. Several prominent people expressed this fear when close to death themselves – “Have me decently buried,but do not let my body be put into a vault in less than two days after I am dead” – George Washington. For more details visit our site secondpen.com.