I get lots of e-mails, and with them come a lot of forwards, most of which are political, and some even offensive. But there are some gems out there which I share from time to time on this blog. This gem comes; once again; from my old Junior High School classmate, Steven Parker, who got it from Marlyn. the two of them seem to have access to an unlimited variety of these things, all of which are several cuts above the usual stuff people forward. This one explains the origins of some very common idiomatic expressions. Hope you enjoy it. All thanks due to Steve for sending it!
Where did the expression "Piss Poor" come from? Well, it's an interesting history.
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 "Piss 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 the
body odor.
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
could mess up your nice clean bed.
Hence, 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.
Hence the saying, "Dirt poor."
The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery. In
the winter when wet, 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.”
(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)
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 their guests. And
then they 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 “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."
And that's the truth.
No comments:
Post a Comment