Origins of some expressions

[ILikeStilettos]

Could it be a myth? After seeing and reading this, I am so thankful to be living in 2016!

They used urine to tan animal skins, so families once a day took pee and sold to the tannery. They had to do this to survive, they were ‘piss poor.’ The really poor couldn’t afford to buy a pot. They ‘didn’t have a pot to piss in’ and were considered the lowest.

Most people got married in June(only yearly bath in May, they smelled pretty good in June. However, since they were starting to smell, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

Baths were of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the nice clean water 1st, then all the sons and men, then women, finally the children. Babies last, the water was so dirty you could lose them. Hence the saying, ‘Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water!’

Houses had thatched roofs with thick straw-piled high, no wood underneath. It was for animals to get warm, cats and other animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained, it was slippery, the animals would slip off the roof. Hence the saying, ‘It’s raining cats and dogs.’ Nothing to stop things from falling into the house. In the bedroom bugs and others mesed up your clean bed. A bed with big posts, a sheet hung over the top (protection). That’s how canopy beds came into existence.

The floor was dirt. Hence the term, ‘dirt poor.’ The wealthy had slate floors (slippery when wet), so they spread thresh (straw) to help keep their footing. They added more thresh until, when the door opened, it would slip outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entrance-way. Hence, ‘a thresh hold.’

They cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle hung over the fire. Every day, they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables(not much meat). Stew for dinner, leftovers in the pot got cold overnight and then start the next day. Sometimes stew had food for quite a while. Hence the rhyme, ‘Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old.’ Pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came they hung bacon to show off. (Sign of wealth) A man could ‘bring home the bacon.’ They would cut off a little to share, and would all sit around and ‘chew the fat.’

Those with money had pewter plates. High acid content food caused lead to leach onto the food, thus lead poisoning death. Tomatoes, were considered poisonous for the next 400 years. Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the bottom of the loaf, family the middle, and guests the top, or the ‘upper crust.’ When salt was a rarity it was kept in huge 'cellars' and sat in the middle of the table, those above could use it, those below couldn't. You had to be 'worth your salt'.

Lead cups were to drink ale or whisky. The combination would knock the imbibers out for days. Someone walking along the road would think they were dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid on a kitchen table for days and the family would come to eat and drink and see if they would wake up. Hence a ‘wake.’

In small villages, local folks ran out of places to bury people. They dug up coffins and took the bones to a bone-house, and reused the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 were found with scratch marks, and they realized they were burying people alive. They tied a string on the wrist of the corpse, through the coffin, through the ground; tied it to a bell. Someone sit out in the graveyard all night (‘the graveyard shift’) to listen. Someone was ‘saved by the bell,’ or was a ‘dead ringer.’

This piece about “the way things were” is a reminder to respect our rich history.