So if you read me regularly (or as regularly as I post) then you know I have been saying that I was going to do the Q blog for some time now but I never seem to get it up. (Although I managed to have time to do a million and a half personal blogs.) My only excuse for that is to hang my head and smile pretty and hope you forgive me.
I decided to do the Q blog on quotes that people say but most have no idea where they come from.
Let's start with a simple one.
"Don't let the cat out of the bag."
This is actually a market expression. Many many years ago when live animals were sold at market to consumers (Think they sold you the pig, you had to make your own chops and all that no nice prepackaged stuff) Some marketers would put a piglet in a bag and sell it to you. Well naturally, the piglet would not like being in the bag and he would thrash around and generally be in a panic. Some retailers would substitute a cat for the piglet because let's face it, an angry cat thrashing around sounds the same as a piglet in distress. At least that's the thought. I don't hear it and quite honestly think the sharp claws trying to rip the bag to shreds would have given it away for me. But I digress. The phrase was coined because naturally you wouldn't want to open the bag and a cat comes flying out instead of you seeing the piglet you bought at the bottom of the bag or rather Give away the secret of the deception. Hence "Don't let the cat out of the bag" means Don't tell the secret.
"You'll catch your death."
This one goes back to the nineteenth century. You will mostly hear older people say it. Back then, death was such a constant presence in most households that doing something like stubbing your toe could eventually lead to death. You could stub it, the nail could come off, most people went shoeless you got dirt under the nail which turns into an infection and boom, you're dead. To catch it, means you were chasing it. If you intentionally go out in cold weather with nothing warm on you were all but telling death that you were done on this earth and you were ready to die. And a cold was the quickest way. Nobody was exceptionally healthy so going out and getting a chill that would lead to the weakening of your already not so awesome immune system... you get the picture.
"Hell bent for leather" -Sarah Brown
Hell bent for leather does not actually seem to have an origin and many think that it is actually two phrases combined. Hell bent means recklessly determined. Your mom told you not to touch the pot on the stove, your gram told you the same thing, you even say someone get burned already but you still want to touch it. You are recklessly determined to get hurt. Hell bent meaning you will go as far as hell to get your answer. Hell for leather was actually coined by Rudyard Kipling in 1889 as a way of recklessly riding a horse. No one knows if the leather in this case is the leather riding crop or the wear and tear on the leather saddle but most take the combined phrase to mean that you will continue on the path to destruction no matter what.
"Mind your P's and Q's"
Another phrase that people are of split minds on. I actually explored this one years ago when it crossed my mind that I wanted to know where it came from and I found that it came from Old Ireland where there are public houses, or pubs aplenty. They serve their beer in Pints and Quarts. Honestly I knew about then serving pints of beer but I never ever heard of a pub serving a quart of beer, so i highly doubt the validity of this origin explaination. The second that I found was mind your pleases and thank you's R being the Please and Q being the latter half of the phrase Thank you which sounds like Q. The basic meaning of this phrase is mind your language. Because using please and thank you is always the way to be on the right side of the harsh language wall. So I guess if I tell someone to "please go eff themselves, thank you very much" I guess I'm minding my p's and q's and am therefore minding my language....
And Lastly...
"Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!"
Let's take a trip back to the medieval times shall we? no not the totally awesome fantastic, I might just be a little biased because I love it show, I mean the actual Medieval times. When a lady was a lady and the silk and jewels were real and no body bathed regularly. Yeah. Fun fact. June brides are and always have been so popular because June is when most people took their yearly, or bi annual bath. If you got married in June, there was a good chance your mate was reasonably clean. Back to the topic. It was customary for the man in the house to take the first bath in the nice clean water. Followed by any sons, then mom, then the daughters and finally, the baby. Keep in mind that if this was an annual bath and most people had lice and other lovlies crawling on them the water was now cloudy and vermin infested and if you dropped the baby into the water and it went over his head you probably couldn't see the baby for the grime and cloudiness of the water. And because everyone was such a good parent back then it was apparently common for people to toss out the bath water with the baby still in the water. This is just my warped thinking but one if the baby slipped below the waters surface and i didn't notice, the bay is probably dead by the time I throw out the bathwater. I'm just saying... baby didn't make a sound and I've now picked up the tub and tossed it. Yep. Baby is gone.
So that's the origin of some quotes that I have heard and used but had to go and look up.
Now remember guys, mind your p's and q', don't go out without a coat or you'll catch your death and don't be hell bent for leather and throw the baby out with the bathwater.
Hehe Stay Frosty y'all!!
