Where do we get our phrases!

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kiwi Bruce
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by kiwi Bruce »

cob wrote: I have done all my life. when loading a muzzle loader

you tap on the stock (knock on wood) to settle the powder charge so you get good ignition
Like...Flash in the pan...and going off half cocked
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by papstoker »

Pulling someone's leg...

In olden days they hung people by hoisting them up with the rope around their necks, so the neck didnt break, and you basically died slowly from asphyxiation. Now if someone in the crowd watching (it was the only spectator sport for the poor) took pity on you, they would go and hang on your legs, pulling them, to kill you quicker, and put you out of your misery.
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by Kareltje »

cuginosgrizzo wrote:
cob wrote:Knock on wood
In my country (and in all the mediterranean) to ban unlucky events we touch iron, not wood (actually any metal will do, we are not so choosy). The origin of this seems to be connected with the iron horseshoe, which is considered a good-luck charm, and it is related to sone tales about saints and the devil.

We also have many other apotropaic gestures (as you know we talk with our hands as well as our words) like touching one's scrotum (for men, left breasts for women), which are symbols of virility and fertility and thus considered good luck charms.
So if I want to wish a woman good luck, do I have to grab my balls or her left breast? :mrgreen:
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Kareltje
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by Kareltje »

papstoker wrote:Pulling someone's leg...

In olden days they hung people by hoisting them up with the rope around their necks, so the neck didnt break, and you basically died slowly from asphyxiation. Now if someone in the crowd watching (it was the only spectator sport for the poor) took pity on you, they would go and hang on your legs, pulling them, to kill you quicker, and put you out of your misery.
In Belgium the Dutch-speaking half has a expression: "Gij speelt met mijn voeten!" (You are playing with my feet!)
Meaning hat you are joking and more specifically: mocking me.
Strangely enough this expression is not known in the Netherlands.
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by The Baker »

In English the meaning is the same as in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium; 'you are joking and more specifically: mocking me.'

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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by Kareltje »

The Baker wrote:In English the meaning is the same as in the Dutch speaking part of Belgium; 'you are joking and more specifically: mocking me.'

Geoff
If that is true, I guess the story about pulling the leg of hanged people is pulling my leg.
A selfconfirming story.
Nice! :clap:

Or maybe in Afrikaans the meaning reversed? :mrgreen:
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by The Baker »

No, I have certainly heard of easier hangings when friends hang onto the leg of the condemned man (which would be a real kindness as you would be likely to get a face full of something nasty when his bowels and bladder voided).
I have just not heard of the expression 'pulling one's leg' with regard to this.
Doesn't mean it is not right.

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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by Bushman »

Two possible meanings the second deals with hanging.
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php ... eones-leg/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by thecroweater »

Vaguely remember a story about pick pockets using it as a distraction tactic .
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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Bushman wrote:Two possible meanings the second deals with hanging.
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php ... eones-leg/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Following the links to other phrases like “Break a Leg”, “Run Amok” and “Basket Case” somehow led me to the origin of the term “booze”.
Here I would take exception to some of the “facts” as presented (back in Aug 3, 2010).

Quote: “The earliest references to wine being made are found in Egypt around 4000 BC”.

I've read from sources which found potassium hydrogen tartate (acid/ cream of tartar, wine tailings) in clay pots or on pottery shards from Mesopotamia, which pre-date that by 1,000 years. In some circles mead is considered to be the oldest fermented beverage – here to from China, but dated about 2,000 years older than quoted here.

On the other hand the same writer writes that both beer and bread have been recorded back to the Neolithic era around 10,000 BC; but he leaves no sources.
In a related article about twist ties or tabs on bread packaging, he states that Pliny the Elder (a historian 2,000 years ago) claimed that the Gauls and Iberians used foam from beer to leaven their bread. Also he suggest that the “trenchers” rather than being made of wood, were originally sheets of thin unleavened bread used in place of plates and bowls for holding food. These tidbits are novel to me.

Quote:Contrary to popular belief, the various Native American tribes had numerous forms of alcoholic beverages they brewed, long before the “white man” came to the Americas; thus, “fire water” was not introduced to the Native Americans by the “white man”.

- In pre-Columbian, eastern North America, the native Indians appear to have been unfamiliar with alcohol. The situation was different in the south.

- Before the Spanish arrived; is seems that the Aztecs were acquainted with the fermented agave juice that they called “octli” or “pulque”. The Tepehuanes and Tarahumaras, who inhabited territory in modern-day northern Mexico, fermented corn to produce tesvino. The nomadic Apaches probably learned how to make “tizwin” from mexicalli tribes in northern Mexico. The Pima Indians probably fermented Saguaro cactus fruit and Mesquite beans. For a thousand years apparently, the Incas in the Peruvian Andes chewed up maize and spit it into a common vat which was then fermented into the corn wine known as Chicha.

- There is no evidence showing that the Native Americans knew how to distill anything before the arrival of the Spanish or Portuguese. I prefer to believe that “firewater” was introduced by the “white man”, and that the term came from witnessing the liquor burn; perhaps during a 57.15% or better ethanol / gunpowder proof test.
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Kareltje
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by Kareltje »

Interesting, contrahead!
Some time ago someone asked what the original settlers of America knew about distilling. As this link shows: nothing, as far as we know.

About the Dutch word buis. I did not know it once was a verb buizen or a noun buis that meant drinking vessel.

Nowadays a buis is a pipe (a hollow, cilindrical object). Older meanings, especially in Belgium, are a kind of simple jacket. Also in old radio's the glass balloons with a lot of metal wiring in it, were called buis. By extension of that: an old tv. Furthermore a special kind of ship of fishermen. It is, according to the dictionary, also the igniting part of an explosive projectile. And in Belgium when your exam is insufficient, you get a buis.
When it is a jacket, the gender of the word is neutral: het buis. In all other meanings the gender is feminine: de buis, she.
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by contrahead »

What was “A Fate Worse Than Death”?
Sex, believe it or not... There is both a shortened meaning in the idiom index :
The reputed opinion of sexual intercourse by prim Victorian ladies”.
and, a longer definition under the meanings menu of this peculiar web site.

--------------

https://www.phrases.org.uk/cgi-bin/idio ... than-death" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
or
https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/134650.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
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Kareltje
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by Kareltje »

Not just sex, but rape. That are two completely different things.
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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'Daylight robbery'

One of the methods people were taxed on England was on the number of windows one had in one's house. The more windows one had, the richer you were, apparantly. So tax dodgers bricked up their windows, and sat in their houses in the dark in the middle of the day, suffering from daylight robbery.
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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While in Scotland a few years ago I got the chance to witness buildings with the windows bricked closed. Amazing what they can think to tax!
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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Quite, and the lengths people will go to to avoid paying tax. In York you will see buildings where the bottom storey is smaller than the floor above it, so it looks as if buildings are leaning over the streets. This was because people were taxed on the square yardage of their properties. In Greece currently most houses are built halfway with peopke living in the botton and the top floor unfinished, because buildings only have to,pay tax once they are finished.
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by Truckinbutch »

When my area was first settled enough to form a rudimentary governing body that august body levied a clock tax . Any household affluent enough to own a clock was subject to taxation .
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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Square Meal: This is an expression synonymous with a proper or substantial meal. It originated from the square platters that were used to serve meals aboard a ship.
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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Sun's over the Yard Arm
In the days of the square rigger, sailing across the north Atlantic, the sun rises above the main mast spars...or Yard.. at about eleven o'clock...the time of officers morning "stand easy"..they went below for their first rum tot of the day.
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by Bushman »

kiwi Bruce wrote:Sun's over the Yard Arm
In the days of the square rigger, sailing across the north Atlantic, the sun rises above the main mast spars...or Yard.. at about eleven o'clock...the time of officers morning "stand easy"..they went below for their first rum tot of the day.
Sounds like a great tradition; Arrrr
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

Post by RedwoodHillBilly »

The sun is over the yard arm some where in the world at any time. i.e any time is a good time to drink. :)
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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Doldrums is the name of an area of the ocean on either side of the equator. This area is known to have unstable and light wind conditions. A sailing ship caught in the Doldrums can be stranded due to lack of wind. Today the term is used to describe someone as being in low spirits, stagnated, or depressed.
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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Bushman wrote:Doldrums Today the term is used to describe someone as being in low spirits, stagnated, or depressed.
AH-HA a teetotaler !
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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Bushman wrote:Doldrums is the name of an area of the ocean on either side of the equator. This area is known to have unstable and light wind conditions. A sailing ship caught in the Doldrums can be stranded due to lack of wind. Today the term is used to describe someone as being in low spirits, stagnated, or depressed.
To add to this, the Doldrums are located about 5 degrees north and south of the equator and are very moist. This is due to the earth's rotational axis making the equator extremely hot and the hot air converging and rising into the atmosphere. Moist warm air converging and rising meals little or arbitrary guests of wind and bad storms. Doldrums came from "Dull" or the general feeling when sailing through this area.

As the air rises and moisture condenses and falls to the earth the air dries out. The dry air cycles back down to the earth around the 30 degree mark. Cold air falling and converging at 30 degrees latitudinally results clear skies and no wind. This area can be as dry as the Sahara desert in annual rainfall. Sailing ships would sit for weeks at this parallel. Horses would be thrown overboard by sailors to conserve food and water and to lighten the ship for easier sailing while waiting for the winds to pick up.

;)

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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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Letting the Cat Out of the Bag comes from the old naval punishment of being whipped with a "cat o' nine tails". It was kept in a leather bag and when the sailors "let the cat out of the bag" they had usually done something that would result in punishment.
The term today means someone has said something that was not to be said, or revealed a secret.
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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Did a Tour of the HMS Endeavor II...in the Royal Navy that bag was crimson red and hung in the galley for all the crew to see.
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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Here is a few more – at the risk of repetition or of being urban legend.

Balls to the wall” : for going very fast. Early airplanes often had balls attached to the end of the throttle controls. In order to go full throttle the pilot had to push the throttle all the way forward into the wall of the instrument panel.

The (American) saying "God willing and the creek don't rise" was in reference to the Creek Indians; not a body of water. It was written by Benjamin Hawkins in the late 18th century. He was a politician and Indian diplomat. While in the South, Hawkins was requested by the President to return to Washington. In his response, he was said to write, "God willing and the Creek don't rise." Because he capitalized the word "Creek" he was referring to the Creek Indian tribe and not a body of water.

Before cameras were invented, portrait painters and sculptors were in high demand. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are 'limbs,' therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the expression, 'Okay, but it'll cost you an arm and a leg.' (Artists know hands and arms are more difficult to paint.)

'Chairman of the Board.' In the late 1700's, many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide bench folded down from the wall, and was used for dining. The 'head of the household' always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the bench. Occasionally a guest, who was usually a man, would be invited to sit in this chair during a meal. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. They called the one sitting in the chair the 'chair man.'

At local taverns, pubs, and bars, people drank from pint and quart-sized containers. A barmaid's job was to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks coming. She had to pay close attention and remember who was drinking in pints and who was drinking in quarts, hence the phrase 'minding your Ps and Qs.'

Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what the people considered important. Since there were no telephones, TV's, radios nor internet, the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs, and bars. They were told to 'go sip some Ale and listen to people's conversations and political concerns. Many assistants were dispatched at different times. 'You go sip here' and 'You go sip there.' The two words 'go sip' were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion and, thus we have the term 'gossip' .

(Heating enough water to take a proper bath was a logistical difficulty in previous centuries. Even the most sophisticated European men and women took baths only twice a year (May and October / spring and fall). They also wore powdered wigs in public because their real hair was dirty and scraggly or because their heads were shaved to rid themselves of lice. Wealthy men could afford good wigs made from wool. They couldn't wash the wigs, so to clean them they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell, and bake it for 30 minutes. The heat would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term 'big wig'.

Personal hygiene left much room for improvement. As a result, many women and men had developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would spread bee's wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman's face she was told, 'mind your own bee's wax.' Should the woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the term 'crack a smile'. In addition, when they sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt. Therefore, the expression 'losing face.'
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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Too many to tell. The “jolly roger” was a jolie rouge mispronounced, a red flag meant no quarter. The last seam in ships hull is called the ‘devil’, to pack tarred cordage into seams to prevent leakage is to “pay” the seam, you beach a ship and cant it to scape barnacles and repair damage .... you could be between the devil and the deep blue sea... there would be the devil to pay and no pitch hot. A rope on a ship is called a sheet, in a big blow you would loosen the ropes holding the sails taught to prevent a blow out... 3 sheets to the wind. At sea a leadsman called out the depth in measures of 6 feet (a fathom), at 36 feet you were safe (and could bury your dead)... he would call out “by the deep, six”. A common way to lighten ship in an emergency was to throw your casks of fresh water overboard, but you better be sure of that emergency... you want to hold your water, boy. Scuttlebutt, that’s a covered cask of water near a passageway below...where you could overhear talk and rumors. Have fun!
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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Go cry me a river mate

Generally said when some asshole that has everything asks for some charity
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Re: Where do we get our phrases!

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Yonder said, 'Scuttlebutt, that’s a covered cask of water near a passageway below...where you could overhear talk and rumors'.
That's the naval saying.

I couldn't paste a picture but look up Furphy on Wikipedia.
During the First World War The Shepparton (central Victoria) firm made wheeled horse-drawn water tanks with cast ends and galvanised iron sheet body for the Australian army.
So rumours heard around the water tank became known as Furphies.
I have one of the Furphy tank ends affixed to the side of my house.
Some sell now for many thousands of dollars though mine would not be so much.

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