Later, Merriam-Webster, a dictionary, tweeted that phrase actually “dates to the early 19th century.”
In the economic sense, HuffingtonPost.com later pointed out (Merriam-Webster Politely Tells Trump He Did Not Invent Phrase ‘Prime The Pump’, May 11, 2017):
The concept dates back to economist John Maynard Keynes, who argued that when a population’s “animal spirits” were flagging, an influx of government spending could stimulate the overall economy. The use of the phrase “prime the pump” to describe this policy dates back to 1933, according to Merriam-Webster ― just about 13 years before Trump was born.
Anyways, “prime the pump” derives from the practice of working a water pump, meaning to get the pump up to top (prime) form so that it can operate with force and at full capacity. To do it, you pour a bowl of water into the pump to allow its suction valve to function – the water blocks the air passage, thus creating vacuum and therefore suction.
As an economic metaphor, priming the economic pump means government investment in various forms. In this sense, money from the government works like the water you put in the pump in order to prime it up so that the machine or the economy, as it were, can work properly again.
The New Deal pioneered by Frank D. Roosevelt during and after the Great Depression (Google it to find out more on the subject) was a good example. Roosevelt spent a lot of money building roads and bridges, creating jobs in the short run while facilitating travel and commerce in the long run.
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