Making the cut

Q: “Making the cut” is said to originate from golf, but it might equally be said to have its roots in early moviemaking. Which came first? A: The expression “make the cut” didn’t originate in either golf or filmmaking. When it first appeared in print, the expression referred to people who didn’t “make the cut” for Christmas bonuses. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the usage as “to succeed in being included in, or admitted to, something; to be good enough for something.” The earliest OED example compares holiday bonuses to profit sharing: “It wasn’t really profit sharing, I realized, because it didn’t include the publisher’s telephone operator and my own cook. In short, the common man, as usual, didn’t make the cut” (from “Control,” an essay by E. B. White in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, February 1943). The golf usage appeared a dozen years later. The OED defines it as “to qualify for the last two rounds of a four-round golf tournament, by equaling or bettering the required…