Locust Years: Origin and Meaning of the Expression

A period of adversity, especially economic hardship, is known as locust years. The expression comes from an unusual combination of religion, politics, and war.

The origin of the phrase lies in the Old Testament of the Bible: "And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, and the caterpillar, and the palmer-worm, my great army which I sent among you" (Joel 2:25).

In the 1930s many British statesmen were worried about Britain's failure to respond to the threat posed by the massive rearmament occurring in Germany. In 1936 Thomas Inskip, one such statesman, characterized that period of British delay (lost, or "eaten," years) by orally quoting the "locust" passage from Joel.

Winston Churchill, another British statesman, quickly picked up on Inskip's quotation and referred to it in a House of Commons speech on November 12, 1936. Churchill praised Inskip for realizing the danger that Britain faced by falling behind Germany in rearmament. He also gave credit to Inskip for using the Joel passage, "the years that the locust hath eaten," to describe the period during which ineffective British authorities allowed the armament gap to develop (those authorities were the "locusts" who "ate," or wasted, those precious years).

After World War II (1939-1945), Churchill wrote a huge, six-volume book about the war and the period leading up to the war. He titled the entire six-volume set The Second World War, the first volume The Gathering Storm (1948), and the fifth chapter of that volume "The Locust Years, 1931-1935."

In a footnote on the first page of that chapter, Churchill explained the origin of his title: "Sir Thomas Inskip, Minister for Co-ordination of Defence, who was well versed in the Bible, used the expressive phrase about this dismal period, of which he was the heir: 'The [capitalized] years that the locust hath eaten' (Joel, ii, 25)."

It was Churchill's 1948 chapter title that gave popularity to the condensed form of the biblical expression: locust years. Churchill used the term in reference to the widespread deprivation in Britain from 1931 to 1935, both economically (because of the Great Depression) and militarily (because of Britain's failure to begin rearmament).

Later other writers adopted the same expression for varied purposes. In 1962, for example, the author William McElwee published a book titled Britain's Locust Years, 1918-1940 .

Today locust years, still mainly a British expression, has a wide range of senses, from a period of personal difficulties to a period of national trials. Musicians, such as Jerry Lee Lewis and the Hammers of Misfortune, have used the term in album titles.
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Lyman, Darryl. Dictionary of Animal Words and Phrases. Middle Village, New York: Jonathan David Publishers, 1994.