Pixies Place Forums - Historical Trivia!

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Not playing with the full deck

the phrase is simply a jocular expression similar to 'Bats in the Belfry' or 'his elevator does not run all the way to the top. '

Gossip

This is a very old word with a much more modern meaning. It comes from the Old English godsibb, meaning a godparent or baptismal sponsor. It comes from god + sib (meaning blood relation as in sibling). It dates to at least 1014.

By 1362, the term was being used to mean a close friend, one you might chose to be godparent to your children. It was applied to both men and women, although in later uses it came to be applied only to women. By 1566, the word was being used to mean a flighty woman, one who would engage in idle talk. From there it came to mean the idle talk itself.

P's & Q's

The phrase dates to the late 18th century--at least 1779. The exact origin is unknown, but several competing hypotheses seem to be the most likely.

The first is that it derives from the phrase p and q which was an abbreviation for prime quality. This English dialectical term dates to the 17th century. So to mind your p's and q's would mean to be exacting in detail and ensure high quality.

The second is that it refers to difficulty children had in learning to distinguish between the letters p and q, being mirror images of one another. To learn one's p's and q's is a phrase meaning to learn one's letters is first recorded around 1830--somewhat later but not impossible as the origin. Often this explanation is identified with printers and distinguish between a p and a q in type, but the early use exclusively deals with children, not printing.

The third, first suggested by Farmer and Henley at the turn of the 20th century, is that the phrase comes from the practice of maintaining a tally in pubs and taverns. Marks under column P, for pint, or Q, for quart, would be made on a blackboard. To tell a bartender to mind his Ps and Qs would be to tell him to mind his own business and get back to work.

Another commonly suggested explanation is that it is a variation on mind your pleases and thank yous, a plea for gentility and manners. There is no evidence to support this, nor does the please and thank you phrase appear anywhere except in explanations of the Ps and Qs origin.

The last is from the world of printing. Typesetters had to be skilled in reading letters backward, as the blocks of type would have mirror images of the letters. The lower-case letters p and q were particularly difficult to distinguish because they are mirrors of one another and located in bins next to one another. Typesetters had to be particularly careful not to confuse the two

Which is the correct one is anybody's guess

Brass Monkey

Though monkey was a term used in this context and era (the boys bringing charges to the guns from the magazine were known as powder monkeys and there is some evidence that a type of cannon was called a monkey in the mid seventeenth century), there is no evidence for the word being applied to a pile of cannon shot.

See ya learn something new every day *LOL*

I honestly don't know which I enjoy more, the emails Irish shares with us which always make us think. Or Sharni's facts she supplies us with so we don't have to think anymore! Thanks to you both for sharing!

Thanks for the fact finding Sharni!