Quaint English expressions

apr 12th, 2010

entertaining, though i am a bit dubious about some of the derivations -- they sound like people saying shakespeare is something something iyer :-)

the 'dead giveaway' is the opening paragraph -- you don't take people away to be 'hung' (that's another kettle of fish entirely, like the TV show about a well-endowed sportsman), you take them away to be 'hanged'. 

someone who makes an elementary mistake like that is no scholar, and therefore i would be very dubious about the rest of the tall claims, but they are funny anyway. enjoy!

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Quite interesting and well worth  reading to the end There is an old Hotel/Pub in  Marble Arch, London , which used to have a gallows adjacent to  it. Prisoners were taken to the gallows, (after a fair trial  of course) to be hung. The horse drawn dray, carting  the prisoner, was accompanied by an armed guard, who would  stop the dray outside the pub and ask theprisoner if he would  like ''ONE LAST DRINK''. If he said YES, it was  referred to as ONE FOR THE ROAD If he declined, that  prisoner was ON THE WAGON So there you go. More  bleeding history. They used to use urine to tan animal  skins, so families used to all pee in a pot & then once a  day it was taken & 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 couldnt even afford to buy a  pot, they "Didnt have a pot to Piss in" & 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 1500s: 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 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 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, so they spread thresh (straw)  on 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, 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 talking 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, thread 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. Now, who said History was boring ! ! ! __._,_.___      .   Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use . __,_._,___