Why Do We Say It?

[Garnoopy 0]

Why Do We Say It?

 

In George Washington’s days, there were no cameras. One’s image was either sculpted or painted. Some paintings of George Washington showed him standing behind a desk with one arm behind his back while others showed both legs and both arms. Prices charged by painters were not based on how many people were to be painted, but by how many limbs were to be painted. Arms and legs are limbs; therefore painting them would cost the buyer more. Hence the statement, “Okay, but it’ll cost you an arm and a leg.”

 

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As incredible as it sounds, men and women took baths only twice a year! (May & October) Women always kept their hair covered while men shaved their heads (because of lice and bus) and wore wigs. Wealthy men could afford good wigs. The wigs couldn’t be washed, so to clean them, they would carve out a loaf of bread, put the wig in the shell and bake it for 30 minutes. The head would make the wig big and fluffy, hence the term “big wig.” Today we often say, “Here comes the big wig” because someone appears to be – or is – powerful and wealthy.

 

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In the late 1700s, many houses consisted of a large room with only one chair. Commonly, a long wide board was folded down from the wall and used for dining. The “head of the household” always sat in the chair while everyone else ate sitting on the floor. Once in a while an invited guest – who was almost always a man – would be invited to sit in this chair during a meal. To sit in the chair meant you were important and in charge. Sitting in the chair, one was called the “chair man.” Today in business we use the title “chairman.”

 

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Needless to say, personal hygiene left much room for improvement. As a result, many women and men had developed acne scars by adulthood. The women would spread bee’s wax over their facial skin to smooth out their complexions. When they were speaking to each other, if a woman began to stare at another woman’s face, she was told, “Mind your own bee’s wax.” Should the woman smile, the wax would crack, hence the term, “crack a smile.” Also, when they sat to close to the fire, the wax would melt – hence the statement, “loosing face.”

 

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Ladies wore corsets which would lace up in front. A tightly tied lace was worn by a proper and dignified lady, as in “straight laced.”

 

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Common entertainment included playing cards. However, there was a tax levied when purchasing playing cards but only applicable to the “ace of spades.” To avoid paying the tax, people would purchase 51 cards instead. Yet, since most games require 52 cards these people were thought to be stupid or dumb because they weren’t “playing with a full deck.”

 

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Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what was considered important to the people. Since there were no telephone, TVs or radios, the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs and bars who were told to “go sip some ale” and listen to people’s conversations and political concerns. Many assistants were dispatched at different times: “You go sip here” and “you go sip there.” The two words “go sip” were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion and thus, we have the term “gossip.”

 

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At local taverns, pubs and bars, people drank from pint and quart sized containers. A bar maid’s job was to keep an eye on the customers and keep the drinks coming. She had to pay close attention and remember who was drinking in “pints” and who was drinking in “quarts.” Hence the term “minding your P’s and Q’s.”

[ensign_Stron 0]

Well garnoopy I have 2 simple questions:

Where did you find this stuff and (with all due respect of course) why.   :D

[Dumbass 0]

Maybe Garn can do some research on a couple things I always wondered:

 

1)  Why do we call them APARTments when they are so close together?

 

2)  Why do we drive on PARKways and park on DRIVEways?

 

3)  Why do we call it "Stop and go" driving?  You don't stop and then go, you go for a little bit and then you stop.  Why don't we call it "Go and stop" driving?  (OK, I stole this from The Man Show, but it's still a legitimate question.)

[Cmdr Laura Issia 0]

::sigh:: The internet (and the non-sourced fwds that make endless rounds)  has done more damage to an accurate perception of history than every textbook and teacher in the history of mankind.   Why are we always so willing to believe our ancestors lived in squalor and filth until some great god came down from on high and whacked us upside the head with the Miraculous Rod of Modern Technology?

Warning -- History Major rant follows.

 

Bathing was never as uncommon as we children of indoor plumbing would like to think it was.  The lowest classes might do without washing more than their hands and face for long stretches, but anyone respectable was usually hygenic enough to keep from smelling.  Most reluctance to bathe came from the fact that it was difficult to heat enough water for a comfortable bath -- would you like to bathe in cold water in December in the middle of a little Ice Age?  Sponge baths at a washstand would be normal, though, and bathhouses were commonplace and accessible throughout most of Europe.

 

Wigs could be and were cleaned; they were generally made of real hair and could be treated just as you treat the stuff attached to your head.   "big wig," if it comes from this period of history at all, likely comes from the wealthiest men insisting on having the biggest wigs -- like any thing else, bigger=better, right?    (PS, men wealthy enough to have fancy wigs would generally *not* be picking up a bad case of lice; shaving the head tends to make wearing a wig easier, though.  It was also not a common practice; younger men especially often simply styled their own hair more simply than their elders)

 

Seats were hardly a massive luxury.   The might be only one or two chairs, but there would be stools and benches a-plenty.   In colonial America, the adults in a household often had chairs while the children stood, but any grown-up who came to dinner would certainly eat seated (and not on the floor).  Wealthier households would have plenty of seats for diners of all ages.

 

Without repeating the bathing thing, let me just say that the appearance of "mind your own beeswax" dates to c. 1930, and leave it at that.   As for losing face (one o), it first appears in 1876 (that's long, long past the whole 'they didn't bathe' myth), and is considered to be a translation from a Chinese phrase.

 

'Straight-laced' has some merit.  'P's and Q's' has some merit -- the other major theory is that it derives from typesetting, where letters appear mirror-imaged (thus something that looked like a p would print a q, and vice-versa), requiring caution of the setters.

 

"gossip" comes from Old English, which if you've ever tried to read a really old Beowulf text, you'll know shares very little with Modern English except the name.   It comes from godsibb, and dates from before 1100.   I'd go into more detail, but I don't have my access to the OED Online from off-campus. ::sigh::

 

I have no idea where 'arm and a leg' or 'full deck' came from, but I'm about 95% certain that they don't originate as given -- for starters, limbs are hardly the easiest standard for pricing portraiture, and decks of cards were sold then, as now, in packs of 52 -- possibly 53 or 54, if one includes jokers.

End Rant

 

Not that this sort of thing isn't entertaining.  But we all have our little pet peeves, and the ridiculous misconception of history is mine.  Such is life.

[Travis Kroells 0]

::punches Garnoopy:: Look what you've done!

[Garnoopy 0]

Not that this sort of thing isn't entertaining.  But we all have our little pet peeves, and the ridiculous misconception of history is mine.  Such is life.

::dies laughing:: Laura, I give in. You win.

 

A good friend of mine is an English Professor at the local college, she gave me the information. Now I'm going to give her yours.

 

Oh, and after that, I think from now on I'm going to stick to posting jokes about Chicken's crossing roads. There isn't any fact in them.

[Travis Kroells 0]

Or jokes about how I "Suposedly" was the puppet master behind the group of kids who vandalized my school so bad that we missed a week for the clean up....No evidence...No facts...God I hope none of my teachers are trekkies and are reading this...

[Cmdr Laura Issia 0]

Oh, and after that, I think from now on I'm going to stick to posting jokes about Chicken's crossing roads. There isn't any fact in them.

::chuckle::  Hey, nothing wrong with this sorta thing, really.  Like I said, just a personal button-pusher.  Sorry if I came across too hard.

 

But speaking of chicken jokes, I've got a whole slew of "The Chicken Joke According To..."s from my freshman year of college.  Some of them were pretty good, if you've ever been subjected to reading some of the more boring philosophers in school (that was the subject matter of one of our required courses).  Want I should dig 'em out?

[STSF StarDust 0]

Laura.. as a fellow history major, I appreciate the rant. I hated to set Garn straight..

Thanks for the great information.

[ensign_Stron 0]

[move]How did you get the moving text??

see doesn't work??

[Cmdr Laura Issia 0]

Well, after a bit of testing to see what the problem might be, I think you need to make sure you put in the close tag: [./move.] (without .'s)  You'd have to ask our dear Webmaster or someone else who's got more experience with these boards, but I suspect it's because otherwise there'd be some sort of bug that make all succeeding posts move or something.  :D

[Nemesis 0]

does it move with dots no it doesn't

[Nemesis 0]

lets try it with the dots I doubt'll movedots dont make it move only the close one thanks laura :D

[Cmdr Laura Issia 0]

the dot's were only there to make the tag show up; otherwise it would have been read as a command and not show up. :-)

[Nemesis 0]

I know I just wanted to have something to say to try it   :D