Wednesday's Random Slang-o-rama: Let the chips fall where they may

Let the chips fall where they may sounds like a phrase that's a kissing cousin to when the chips are down, but not so!

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Merriam-Webster  defines let the chips fall where they may as "to allow events to happen without trying to change them —usually used to suggest that one is willing to accept a result, whatever it may be."

The Grammarist provides some background and dates it to the late 1800s:

The unspoken sentiment in let the chips fall where they may is that one has done everything possible and is at peace with the consequences, or one has acted in good conscience and in line with one’s morals and is at peace with the consequences. Let the chips fall where they may is an American idiom that came into use in the late 1800s and refers to wood chips scattering as one chops wood. The image is of one concentrating on the work at hand, not on the inconsequential chips of wood.

I thought it might have to do with playing cards, or gambling (different sort of chips), and over at The Phrase Finder, someone else thought the same thing in this short exchange. But it looks like it all comes back to hacking away at wood with an axe. One commenter noted:

...You can see where the idea came from in a 14th-century proverb: "Hew not too high lest the chips fall in thine eye." Today's advice is to pay attention to the hewing (the task at hand) and not worry about what happens to the chips. Roscoe Conkling, a political boss and U.S. Senator from New York, said in a speech in 1880, "He [President Grant] will hew to the line of right, let the chips fall where they may."

How nice that there's a quote from 1880 using the phrase! 

And a big THANK YOU to reader/commenter Liz V., who just pointed me to the awesome country song "Let the Chips Fall" performed by Charley Pride. Click below, listen, and sing along, if you wish...