The Origin of Old UK Sayings

[chiang mai]

Fascinating history of the language we use every day, but where did it all come from? For example, where did the term, p*ss poor come from?

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot and then once it was full it was taken and sold to the tannery... If you had to do this to survive you were, P*ss Poor.

But worse than that were the really poor folk who couldn't even afford to buy a pot... They didn't have a pot to piss in and were the lowest of the low.

The next time you are washing your hands and complain because the water temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.

Here are some facts about the 1500's

Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and they still smelled pretty good by June. However, since they were starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide body odour, hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children. last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it, hence the saying, Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water!

Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath, it was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof. Hence the saying, It's raining cats and dogs.

There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings, it could mess up your nice clean bed. So a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection, that's how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt, only the wealthy had something other than dirt thus the saying, Dirt poor. The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery, in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they added more thresh until, when you opened the door It would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence: a thresh hold.

In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot.. They ate mostly vegetables And did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers In the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while. Hence the rhyme: Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.

Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man could, bring home the bacon. They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or the upper crust.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock the imbibers out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around And eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up. Hence the custom; of holding a wake.

England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer.

Now, whoever said History was boring!!!

[wjhall]

Great! I love this sort of info. Amazing where everyday expressions come from

[krisb]

Mad as a hatter. Something to do with mercury or was it lead in the hats sent them mad.

Mind your p's and q's. Mind your pints and quarts of beer.

[xylophone]

Mad as a hatter. Something to do with mercury or was it lead in the hats sent them mad.

Mind your p's and q's. Mind your pints and quarts of beer.

It was the mercury used in the hat making. Also the saying, "touch wood" came from the fact that they thought spirits lived in the trees and to touch them would bring good luck.

Some great info Chiang Mai.......many thanks.

[Jangot]

I originate from what was a small town in north Buckinghamshire, Stony Stratford,

Stony Stratford is an ancient town, and it's main reason for being was that is was a convenient night stop for horse drawn coaches going to the north from London. on "Watling Street", which became the A5.

As a result, the main road through had many Inns and Coaching Houses/Hotels.

The two largest, and almost next to each other, were the Cock Hotel and the Bull Hotel.

To secure customers, and discredit the other, they would make up bad stories about the other.

"Don't go to the Cock, they have bed lice"..."Don't go to the Bull, they cook rats and call it chicken"...etc etc.

So, these wild accusations became known dismissively as "Cock and Bull Stories".

[chiang mai]

I originate from what was a small town in north Buckinghamshire, Stony Stratford,

Stony Stratford is an ancient town, and it's main reason for being was that is was a convenient night stop for horse drawn coaches going to the north from London. on "Watling Street", which became the A5.

As a result, the main road through had many Inns and Coaching Houses/Hotels.

The two largest, and almost next to each other, were the Cock Hotel and the Bull Hotel.

To secure customers, and discredit the other, they would make up bad stories about the other.

"Don't go to the Cock, they have bed lice"..."Don't go to the Bull, they cook rats and call it chicken"...etc etc.

So, these wild accusations became known dismissively as "Cock and Bull Stories".

I like it.

[chiang mai]

There's bunches more here for anyone who's interested:

http://www.backroadstouring.co.uk/phraseorigins.php

[bedoeine]

loved it Chiang Mai. Thank you.

[partington]

Unfortunately these are all completely untrue, and come from hoax e-mails which have circulated for years - this is at least the third time I've read this nonsense on TV alone! The origin of most of these fabrications is an email called "life in the 1500's" which is described in detail (and demolished) on the Snopes Urban myth site:

"In a nutshell, this article about "Life in the 1500s" is nothing more than an extended joke, someone's idea of an amusing leg-pull which began its Internet life in April 1999. All of the historical and linguistic facts it purports to offer are simply made up and contrary to documented facts"

http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.asp

Just to give one example (although everything else in the post is also factually wrong), the so-called explanation of the phrase "dead ringer":

OP says "England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer"

In truth (from Snopes urban myth site):

"the earliest documented uses of the phrase graveyard shift ... simply references work shifts that took place in the middle of the night and early morning hours, a time of day when work environments could be dark, quiet, and a bit spooky.The similar phrase graveyard watch originated at about the same time and refers to a shipboard watch covering the hours between midnight to 4 AM. It's unlikely that sailors aboard ship were in any position to be overseeing the graves of the newly-interred.

Saved by the bell is a late 19th century term from the world of boxing, where a beleaguered fighter being counted out would have his fate delayed by the ringing of the bell to signify the end of the round. Likewise, dead ringer has nothing to do with the prematurely buried signaling their predicament to those still above ground: the term means an exact double, not someone buried alive. Dead ringer was first used in the late 19th century, with ringer referring to someone's physical double and dead meaning "absolute" (as in dead heat and dead right). A ringer was a better horse swapped into a race in place of a nag. These horses would have to resemble each other well enough to fool the naked eye, hence the term came to mean an exact double. "

Fact is better than fiction, so don't spread hoaxes!

[p_brownstone]

Unfortunately these are all completely untrue, and come from hoax e-mails which have circulated for years <snip>

Fact is better than fiction, so don't spread hoaxes!

Actually I preferred the fiction - spoilsport!

Patrick

[chiang mai]

Unfortunately these are all completely untrue, and come from hoax e-mails which have circulated for years - this is at least the third time I've read this nonsense on TV alone! The origin of most of these fabrications is an email called "life in the 1500's" which is described in detail (and demolished) on the Snopes Urban myth site:

"In a nutshell, this article about "Life in the 1500s" is nothing more than an extended joke, someone's idea of an amusing leg-pull which began its Internet life in April 1999. All of the historical and linguistic facts it purports to offer are simply made up and contrary to documented facts"

http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.asp

Just to give one example (although everything else in the post is also factually wrong), the so-called explanation of the phrase "dead ringer":

OP says "England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and would take the bones to a bone-house, and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the graveyard shift) to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be, saved by the bell or was considered a dead ringer"

In truth (from Snopes urban myth site):

"the earliest documented uses of the phrase graveyard shift ... simply references work shifts that took place in the middle of the night and early morning hours, a time of day when work environments could be dark, quiet, and a bit spooky.The similar phrase graveyard watch originated at about the same time and refers to a shipboard watch covering the hours between midnight to 4 AM. It's unlikely that sailors aboard ship were in any position to be overseeing the graves of the newly-interred.

Saved by the bell is a late 19th century term from the world of boxing, where a beleaguered fighter being counted out would have his fate delayed by the ringing of the bell to signify the end of the round. Likewise, dead ringer has nothing to do with the prematurely buried signaling their predicament to those still above ground: the term means an exact double, not someone buried alive. Dead ringer was first used in the late 19th century, with ringer referring to someone's physical double and dead meaning "absolute" (as in dead heat and dead right). A ringer was a better horse swapped into a race in place of a nag. These horses would have to resemble each other well enough to fool the naked eye, hence the term came to mean an exact double. "

Fact is better than fiction, so don't spread hoaxes!

Were this to be found in anywhere other than the Pub, I might be abale to agree with you. But as things stand I'm with Patrick, shame on you, spoilsport.

[yingyo]

They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

This is actually how the verb 'to chat' came about.

to chew the fat.

It became condensed into one word. Chat.

[partington]

They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

This is actually how the verb 'to chat' came about.

to chew the fat.

It became condensed into one word. Chat.

Nope it's short for chatter, to talk idly, which in turn comes from the middle english word chaeteren, "twitter, gossip" c. 1250AD

[yingyo]

^ Booo.

My one is much better, and far less boring.

[Maestro]

 Some great info Chiang Mai.......many thanks.

 

Yes, but it would have been cricket to give the link to the source from where he copied it. That text has been around the web for years.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[WitawatWatawit]

And dogsbody? It's hounded me all my life.

[Maestro]

http://wordsmith.org/words/dogsbody.html

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[chiang mai]

Some great info Chiang Mai.......many thanks.

Yes, but it would have been cricket to give the link to the source from where he copied it. That text has been around the web for years.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

The text came to me in an email from a friend in the UK. I was not aware of its existence on the web beforehand. I did however do a search subsequently and indeed I did provide a link to a source in post number 7, all in all I would say that's cricket and then some, wouldn't you.

Edited October 31, 2013 by chiang mai

[chiang mai]

They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and chew the fat.

This is actually how the verb 'to chat' came about.

to chew the fat.

It became condensed into one word. Chat.

Nope it's short for chatter, to talk idly, which in turn comes from the middle english word chaeteren, "twitter, gossip" c. 1250AD

I'll bet you're loads of fun at parties!

[pitchag]

My mum used the expression we will end up in Carrey St meaning we are going broke and Carey St held the bankruptcy courts i was led to believe.

Never going back to the house for something forgotten once you had left was considered bad luck, was from the London ww1 bombing never to go back when on the way to the shelter

The expression' the place was in bedlam' Beldlam was the old infamouse insane asylum in London

I often told my children when they complained about learning history, if you don't know your history how do you know how you got to where you are now