Those of you who have been reading these blog posts of mine for a while, particularly some of the posts that I wrote at Blogster, know that I am a man who LOVES words.
I have made my livelihood off words all of my life, whether it was being an English/literature teacher, an actor, a theatrical director, a playwright or a technical salesman.
In order for a language to stay alive, it has to change. In a living and vibrant language, such as ours, new words are added constantly (ipod, messaging, fax, software) and archaic words are dropped.
Words also change their meanings. The word 'villain' originally meant 'farmer' or 'peasant'. To be sly was to be intelligent. A knyght was simply a young boy.
To me, these things are fascinating. (I know. I know. "Get a life!")
Did you ever wonder were sayings and cliches come from? Most of these common expressions have roots that go back centuries, and come from very matter-of-fact and common, for the times, situations.
Here are a few of these. I hope you enjoy them.
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in
May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were
starting to smell, so 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
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 entranceway. Hence
the saying a thresh hold.


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 bone s 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..

Comments:

Ahhhh yes, imitation IS the sincerest form of flattery....love you too bro..


http://greasy.com/justmyopinion/bet_ya_know_this.html
I liked it too!

I too love words and the words inside words, and where words originated. The post today is great, loved learning how those sayings came into use.
Sharing this with you>>>>mind your own beeswax.
This came from the days when smallpox was a common disease that caused disfigurement. Those who survived the disease were left with pock marks on their body and face. Ladies would fill in the pock marks with beeswax. However when the weather was very warm the wax might melt.But it was not the thing to do for one lady to tell another that her makeup was melting.
Thank you for the nice comment you left at my blog. Appreciate that a lot.

Wow! Those are awesome!! I love hearing about the origins of expressions. I saw a page-a-day calendar a year or so ago that had a different "lost" or forgotten word for every day. (I really should've got it for myself... maybe if they sell it again next year.) It's interesting and kinda sad how so many words in our language fall out of everyday use and eventually become extinct.

Both informative and funny. A friend used to bring info like this to the dinner table, saying his source was a series of books called Imponderables. He would provide witty commentaries along w/his etymological findings.

Great post! .... Hey, do you hear a bell ringing....?
Never mind. It's just my cat playing with a toy.

too cool! Thanks for sharin!

comment by kristilyn3 on June 22, 2008 12:35 PM ()

Don't you just love this stuff?

reply by hayduke on June 24, 2008 5:39 AM ()

Wow! I learned a lot from your post! Thanks. Could you recommend a book with this kind of information?

Good Stuff!

Extremely interesting! Enjoyed this immensely.

My 81 year old Father was telling me the same things the other day.He love words.He once read the entire dictionary and encyclopedia from a-z.He loves history,politics,trivia,etc....He reads about 5 books a week.
He really is a brilliant man,much like you.Laurie

I've read most of these before--yes, language is fascinating--too bad too many people are using abbreviations and emotioncons these days--including me!!!

Ah.. you must have been running around like a loose cannon compiling this list!