"The Whole Nine Yards" (Origins of the saying)

2010-02-05T04:00:00.000-05:00

Here is one...

During WWII, american fighter planes were armed with .50 caliber machine guns. The belt used to feed the cartridges measured 27 feet long. Thus if a pilot fired a particularly long burst at an enemy, he was said to have given him "the whole nine yards." Contributed By"Diddyriddick" of The http://www.historum.com Forum

The Ring Of Truth (Roots of The saying)

2010-02-04T03:29:00.001-05:00

Two sayings... :"The ring of Truth"- or for something to "ring true"-  and the 
word "sound" as used in "a sound argument" or a "sound investment". 
 
Both of these terms arise from the the Stone quarries of old. 
 
When a sculptor is looking for a large stone block to carve, it is critical that 
that block be homogenous and without fault. But you can not always tell from the 
outside of the stone... even the most perfect looking stone may harbor an unseen 
fault deep in its heart. 
 
To find out if is a stone is without internal fault, you must Sound the stone. 
You take a mason's maul and you hit the stone as hard as you can. 
 
A stone that has a crack at the core will return a dull thud... but a stone that 
is "sound" will literally ring like a bell. 
 
Such a stone is said to Ring True.   Or to be Sound. 
 
Thus the ring of truth is the sweet, bell like tone that tells you the unseen 
core of something is without fault. 
 
Or how about this one: 
The Rule of Thumb 
 
I have seen all kinds of ridiculous things suggested as the origin of this 
term... some listed even in reputable sources of etymology- that are all wrong. 
It is _not_, for example, the size of stick with which you could beat your 
wife... or any of the other silly things I have seen published. 
 
 
 
This term also stems from the trades... 
 
It turns out that, when you are 30 feet up a scaffold and need to take a 
measurement of something, and neglected to bring a yardstick or ruler.... 
 
You always have a ruler with you. 
 
The average mans' thumb is almost exactly 1 inch wide. 
And you can easily learn how to press your thumb or hold it so that you can be 
pretty confident of placing thumb beside thumb to determine how many inches long 
some dimension actually is. 
 
This was called using the rule of thumb-- quite literally a RULE as in measure.  
and came to be the rule of thumb in reference to any rough or ad hoc Rule as in 
guiding principle to roughly factor some quantity or address some situation.

History Lessons on Origins of "Sayings" Fun lessons

2010-01-24T18:56:00.000-05:00

There is an old Hotel/Pub in Marble Arch, London which used to have gallows adjacent.

Prisoners were taken to the gallows (after a fair trial – of course) to be hung.
The horse drawn dray, carting the prisoner was accompanied by an armed guard, who would stop the dray outside the pub and ask the prisoner if he would like one LAST DRINK.
If he said YES it was referred to as “ONE FOR THE ROAD”
If he declined, that prisoner was – “ON THE WAGON”
So – there you go.
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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 couldnt even afford to buy a pot...........they "didnt have a pot to piss in" & were the lowest of the low

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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 an d 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.
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(Getting quite an education, aren't you?)

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 ! ! !

So . . . get out there and educate someone! ~~~ Share this lesson with a friend - like I just did !!

History Lessons on Origins Of "Sayings" Fun Lesson

"The Whole Nine Yards" (Origins of the saying)

The Ring Of Truth (Roots of The saying)

History Lessons on Origins of "Sayings" Fun lessons