Then & Now: Minding your Ps and Qs

AS WE go about our daily lives, we encounter different phrases and expressions during conversations and sometimes wonder where and why they originated. I will explain some of the more common in use as follows.

It will cost you an arm and a leg: When George Washington was president of America, there were no cameras. One's image was either sculptured or painted. Some images of George painted showed him standing behind a desk, one with his arm behind his back, while others showed both arms and both legs. Prices charged by painters were based on how many limbs were to be painted, not on how many people were to be painted. Painting limbs would cost the buyer more money. Hence the expression.

Minding your Ps and Qs: At local pubs and bars, people drank from pint and quart sized containers. The bartender would have to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks coming. They had to remember who was drinking in pints and who was drinking in quarts. Hence the term.

Mind your own beeswax: Personal hygiene, in the old days, left room for improvements. As a result, many people developed acne scars in adulthood. The women used to spread beeswax on their face to smooth their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman's face, she'd be told to mind her own beeswax. Should a woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the term cracks a smile. When women sat too close to the fire, the wax would melt, therefore the expression losing face came about.

Clean around the bend: Meaning eccentric, insane or crazy. From 1929 it refers to an old Naval phrase for anyone who is mad. It was used by the lavatory cleaner, Harpic from the 1930s, as an advertisement slogan for its products.

Over the top: Meaning excessively beyond a reasonable degree. It was used in World War 1 by the British to describe soldiers leaving their trenches to attack the enemy.

To cut your cloth according to your measure: Meaning to undertake only what you have the money and ability to do.
One person’s meat is another person's poison: Meaning what is agreeable to one person is unpalatable to another.

Once bitten twice shy: Implying that one learns from past experiences, so that having been hurt one is doubly cautious in the future.

Go to town: Meaning to splash out. It's from the 19th century, when cowboys went into town to spend their wages.
The cat's pyjamas: Meaning an excellent person or thing. It comes from America in the roaring twenties and describes something superlatively good.

Ask for or be given one's cards: Meaning to resign or be dismissed from one's job. It derives from the 1920s when it referred to one's employment cards.

The land of nod: A place mentioned in the Book of Genesis, located on the East of Eden where Cain was exiled by God after having murdered his brother Abel. It also refers to where we go when we go to sleep.

Necessity is the mother of invention: Meaning that people are more inspired to create something when they have to, rather than when they simply desire to.

In the pink: Meaning the best possible condition coined by Shakespeare in his play Romeo and Juliet. It may allude to the pink of healthy cheeks.

In timely fashion: In a fast manner, coined in the 1200s, meaning at the right time, while fashion is synonymous with manner.

Key of the door: Presenting the key to the front door to a couple on their wedding day is a tradition dating back to Ancient Greece. In ancient Rome the symbol of the key was to denote adulthood and it is still a common practice in many countries to present a young person with a key on their 21st birthday.

The key was said to unlock the doors to heaven and hell but was associated with good luck. Indeed, it is a superstition in Mediterranean countries that keeping a key in the keyhole staves off evil spirits from entering.

To cut no ice: Meaning to make no impression at all, to fail to produce the desired effect. It derives from the edge of a skate cutting into the ice.

The Primrose path: Meaning the path of self-indulgence leading to ruin. It derives from Shakespeare, both in Hamlet (the Primrose path of dalliance) and Macbeth (Primrose way to everlasting bonfire).

Bats in the belfry: Meaning to be mad or insane. It refers to bats apparently flying in thin air with stomach pains, and has roots in the bell towers which creates a sense of crazy activity.

Bag and baggage: Means completely with nothing left behind. It was first used by William Gladstone in calling for the expulsion of Turkish forces from Bulgaria.

Jack of all Trades, master of none: Meaning someone good at a wide variety of things but not great at anyone. Jack of all trades came from the 1600s while the full phrase came a century later.

Flash in the pan: This comes from the seventeenth century when flintlock muskets had pans to hold gunpowder. An attempt to fire the musket in which the gunpowder flared up without the bullet being fired was known as a flash in the pan.

It was also used in the California Gold Rush in the mid-nineteenth century. Prospectors who panned for gold supposedly became excited when they saw something glint in the pan, being disappointed when it turned out to be a flash in the pan. It is used today to illustrate a brief promise but no succeeding performance.

Hat trick: The name originally came from the game of cricket and had reference to a bowler who takes wickets with three successive balls. It was the custom in the nineteenth century for the bowler to be awarded a new hat by his club as a reward for his success. It was also said that the bowler was allowed to take his hat around the crowd for a collection.

The name first appeared in print in the 1870s and has been widened to apply to any sport in which a feat is achieved three times, such as scoring three goals in football.

Raining cats and dogs: This old expression has nothing to do with mammals falling from the sky and everything to do with northern mythology.

Witches riding on storm clouds were believed to assume the form of cats, while both dog and the wolf were, in Norse mythology, the attendants of Odin, the god of storms.

Strong winds were represented as blowing from the mouth of a wolf. Together the cats and dogs symbolise down pouring rain and strong blasts of wind.

Two Limerick groups shortlisted in Permanent TSB Community Fund

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Light a fire under you: It is believed that the saying came from the practice of using young boys (four to ten years old) to climb chimneys to sweep the soot down.

The cruel practice was banned in Britain in August 1840 and casualties were frequent as many boys were maimed or killed from falling or from being badly burned.