Found this article, which I found really interesting.....................
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 couldn't even afford to buy a pot......they "didn't 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 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 entrance-way. Hence: 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 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?
Anyone got any to add to that?
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There was an ancient dispute between the Merchant Taylors and Skinners livery companies which were founded in the same year, and argued over sixth place in the Order of Precedence. In 1484, after more than a century of bickering, the Lord Mayor of London Sir Robert Billesden decided that at the feast of Corpus Christi, the companies would swap between sixth and seventh place and feast in each other's halls.
Hence the phrase "at sixes and sevens".
I also quite like "toe rags". These were day labourers in the docks who could not afford proper footwear. They wrapped rags around their feet to help prevent bits of the hay they were unloading (plenty of hay needed for London's huge horse population) from stabbing into their feet.
Edited to add: here's a photo of some toerags from as late as 1946: newhamstory.com/node/1281
I must admit though, I have doubts about some of these, and not only because I've heard Karl Pilkington mention some of them in the past!
One of my favourite ones was mentioned on QI regarding "Bog Standard" and "Dog's Bollocks". Apparently a toy firm (Hornby maybe?) had two sizes of box for their kits - "Box Standard" and "Box Deluxe". These just got corrupted over time to the phrases we know today to mean "ordinary" and "quality"
Love that and really hope it's true.
Cut and run
Fathom out
In the offing
The bitter end
http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.asp
Cough cough.....
When we woke up in the morning there were spots of blood on the bed sheets. With some concern, I mentioned this to the hotel staff but was told not to worry, it was only the rat snakes fighting with the rats. I was told I could be assured that if any of them dropped out, the Siamese cat that lived in the hut and slept on the bed - it seemed to take precedence over the guests - would soon sort it out! (So that was all right then!)
I find it very interesting now, but used to stare blankly out of the window back then during lessons (mainly thinking about which birds I could perv at at Bexleyheath clock tower after school).
There's a number of suggestions on the interweb. But I haven't found this one which I heard from a steam engine enthusiast.
He claimed that the phrase dates back to the industrial revolution and the invention and use of large single piston steam engines.
These were, of course, not manufactured to the high specifications of today's engines. Over time through heavy-use, poor lubrication, and poor tolerances the cylinder became badly worn. Consequently as the piston moved up and down but also flapped about in the cylinder, it made a load noise called "piston slap". Decrepit machines with this symptom were called "old slappers". It didn't take long for the term to be adopted to describe doxies either.
In the debating chamber of the House of Commons, MPs either sit on the left of the Speaker (the opposition) or on his right (the government). If you're on one of those benches, you're "in order", so you can speak during a debate. However, you might enter the chamber and sit in an area opposite the speaker, called "the fence". When you are in that area, you are "out of order" and you are not allowed to speak either FOR or AGAINST any specific motion. In other words, you do not have a debating position and can't decide to speak with the government or against it. You are literally... Sitting On The Fence.
If you stand up to speak, you are not allowed to stand too close to the members on the other side of the house. In fact, on either side of the House, there are lines on the floor. (The lines are two sword lengths apart, because previously, members were allowed to take their swords into the House - if you were two sword lengths apart from a member opposite you, you couldn't fight him). You have to stand with your front toe somewhere behind the line, like a darts player. When you transgress, the Speaker can call you to order and stop you speaking. Those that do it properly, are considered to be... Toeing The Line.
When you speak, you will typically read out from an "order paper". This is the notification of the position on which you are speaking. When you sit down, having delivered your speech, as set out on the order paper, you pass it to your permanent private secretary. He (or she) takes it from you and places it in a large, green baize sack which is attached to the back of the Speaker's chair. All the order papers that are in that bag are then collated and used to confirm the public record of what took place in the House that day. You can then go back to your constituents and tell them that the issue they wanted you to raise is... In The Bag.