a question about etymology

[drex]

I am wondering where the phrase "that doesn't wash with me" comes from. I thought maybe it might be from apartheid where blacks and whites couldn't use the same spaces which might include bathing areas, hence 'that doesn't wash with me' i.e. we don't see eye to eye. If anybody knows the true origions of this phrase I would be most grateful.

[Maximilianus]

Not origin in itself, which I still haven't found, but I thought I would post one of the many entries of the verb to wash that I could find on The Free Dictionary (http://www.tfd.com/wash), in case there's someone who never heard of it and may be interested in meaning and possible applications and synonyms. So this I found for now:

wash

8. (Informal) be plausible to (always used in negative constructions) stand up, hold up, pass muster, hold water, stick, carry weight, be convincing to, bear scrutiny. Example: All those excuses simply won't wash with me.

[AuntShecky]

I looked the phrase up in Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, where there are quite a few entries for the word "wash," such as "It will all come out in the wash" (everything will turn out okay in the end, just as "dirt and stains are removed by washing."

Hence, this listing for "That (story) won't wash." Although no origin is listed, Brewer's says: "That story or excuse won't do at all' you'll have to think of a better tale than that. Said of an explanation or excuse that is palpably false, far-fetched, or exaggerated."

[Maximilianus]

There's an entry on the Dictionary.com site, listed under won't wash (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/won%27t+wash) (as an idiom). It's the closest to an origin i could come up with, and it says the following:

won't wash


Will not stand up to examination, is unconvincing, will not work, as in "That excuse about your sick aunt just won't wash". This expression originally alluded to a fabric that would not stand up to washing but by the late 1800s was used figuratively for other kinds of failure.