Sayings/Phrases and their origin

Thought that this might be interesting , I will start with one that eluded me for many years

The whole nine yards

Now being an Aussie , and the above saying being American in origin, I don't know why ,
but I always thought that it had something to do with gridiron / American football,
So when anyone said we are gonna give it " the whole nine yards" , or we're gonna
go the " whole nine yards" , I just thought yeah it is going to get a guts effort .

Origin : nothing to do with football, I was watching a show on TV and an American airforce veteran
was taking a guy on a tour of a b52 bomber and he showed him the massive machine guns inside
the aircraft , and the ammunition belts for those machine guns, which were/are nine yards long
and then he explained that during the war when they were under fire and in combat , that's what
they used to say when talking about the machine guns , yeah we gave them "the whole nine yards"
meaning one complete belt of ammo. He then said that's where that saying originated

 

Hmmm okay here goes, hope this doesn't get me banned, so I will use asterix where necessary

In Grade 6 or 7 (1972/3) we were in the School Library, we were told to each take a Dictionary, lookup a word then memorise its meaning... C'mon boys will be boys, I turned straight to 'F' and looked up the obvious and lo and behold! :O It was there!!

A few mates and I were intently huddled together reading the meaning giggling away when the Class Teacher asked me to share with the Class, I refused, he insisted, after the second or third request, I loudly read out what was in that Dictionary much to his shock and horror! He demanded I bring him the Dictionary and show him which I did, he read it, eye balled me then told me to sit, never found that Dictionary on the shelf again after that day...

Now I remember it clearly to this day what was written in that Dictionary but have never found a reference to it online anywhere, it had;
F**k; To sow seed
F*****g; When a Farmer carries a bag of grain and seeds the fields

It basically said something along the lines that; when the Farmer was F*****g it meant he was reaching into his bag and threw the grain across the ground thereby seeding the field.

Was a close call for the cuts from the head office that day, and I think the Teacher was just as surprised as I was that the 'F' word was actually in there! I do not know if it is in any modern Dictionary today, but back then in a small ratty old hardcover Dictionary, it certainly was in there then! :D

 

Caught Red-Handed

This saying originated because of a law. If someone butchered an animal that didn’t belong to him, he had to be caught with the animal’s blood on his hands to be convicted. Being caught with freshly cut meat did not make the person guilty.

 

This is an obvious hoax..but an amusing one..Been around a while and when I saw this thread I thought to retrieve it from my emails. Sure some..most ..or even all of you have seen this one. If the latter then again ..excuse my redundancy..




Where did “p*ss poor” come from ?

Where did the expression "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 p*ss 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, 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.
(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 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”.
And that's the truth.
Now, whoever said History was boring!!!
So get out there and educate someone! ~~~
Share these facts with a friend.
Inside every older person is a younger person wondering,
'What the hell happened?'
We'll be friends until we are old and senile.
Then we'll be new friends.
Smile, it gives your face something to do!

 

Brian Oinks post reminds me of the time not so long back while working in the Royal Mail ( Post office), I came across a postcard from a place, at that time ,my colleagues and I had never heard of!
On the front and across the picture was the name Phuket, well in the UK Ph is pronounced "F"
I rest my case. :D

 

Funny because I ALWAYS pronounced Phuket with an F because in English that is how it is :D

I THOUGHT I was doing really well learning Tagalog & Visayan also until I realised that the Filipino pronunciations of the alphabet are different to our English version, 5 years down the shyte chute and back to the drawing board! I can type in Tagalog and Visayan a little but speaking it, well my new Family p*ss themselves silly when I started sprouting what I thought was correct Filipino, but it works out as we are teaching each other as we go, hopefully I can hold a fluent conversation in a couple of years :P hehe