Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: iggy21uk on 25 August 2010, 13:39:40
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Educational.........
Where did Piss Poor come from?
Interesting History
Urine used to be used to tan animal skins, so families would 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 couldn't even afford to buy a pot......they "didn't have a pot to piss in" & were the lowest of the low.
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 and 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 the 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.
(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 ! ! !
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Interesting :y
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Fascinating Iggy :y
My 14 year old thoroughly enjoyed the info :y :y :y
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A very enjoyable read Igg 8-) :y :y
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very interesting :y
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:y :y :y :y
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Very good! :y :y :y
Oh yes history is wonderfully interesting and explains a great deal!! 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)
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Scintillating stuff Iggy, well done! :y
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very good, well now you know :y :y :y
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thanks for the post iggy; always had an interest in history-particularly the origins of everyday sayings/words :y
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Yep, always like to hear where these old sayings come from :y
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Cor blimey.....the things you learn :)
My favourite was the one about the piss!!
That got me wondering though iggy and your obviously the man to ask.
Because people used to take their pot's full of urine to the tanner's for a few bob......is that where the saying " Taking the piss " comes from?
I don't mean that as a joke...I'm genuinely curious :-? :-?
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Cor blimey.....the things you learn :)
My favourite was the one about the piss!!
That got me wondering though iggy and your obviously the man to ask.
Because people used to take their pot's full of urine to the tanner's for a few bob......is that where the saying " Taking the piss " comes from?
I don't mean that as a joke...I'm genuinely curious :-? :-?
See Wikipedia for that. Taking it to fix wool dye.
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Cheers iggy :y
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Good post mate - interesting facts :y
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excellent :y
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:y :y :y :y
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Very good, I was aware of some of them, always interesting the 'old sayings'.... :y :y
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You have all heard the saying 'Daylight robbery' well that stems from back in the day your house was taxed by how many windows it had so, if you had a lot of windows, you paid a lot of tax..
Then people started to board up or brick up there windows to pay less tax and in return robbed themselves of daylight
:y
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The saying "Up to scratch" A phrase used in pugilists' fights. A line was scratched on the ground to which the contestants had to put their forward foot before the fight could begin :y
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Theres lots to do with guns, in this modern society which now hates them wth a passion.
Going off half cocked? -- In flintlock pistol days, it took more effort to pull the mainspring back to full cock and ensure a better fire than pulling it back halfway where a misfire was more lokely - going off half cocked.....
Could make your effort a flash in the pan - The priming powder was in a 'pan' that accepted the spark gererated by the firing mechanism if it performed correctly. If you were careless in priming the weapon, it became a 'flash in the pan' without a bullet being expended.
If you were careless and let moisture get into your priming powder, it became damp and would not fire. The Zullu's would have you and you would be too late to learn the lesson of keeping your powder dry...
Before said Zulu's (or other heathen of the accepted day) made their charge, you had to load your weapon.
Bullets, before the current lead/copper/brass/whatever crop were made in waxed paper whereby the bullet and charge were contained within. If the said Zulu charge was inevetable, you had to take your paper 'bullet' and bite off the lead and paper part and force it down the barrel after pouring the powder charge down - bite the bullet time....
There are a few more, just cant remember them offhand.... :y
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Excellent :y :y
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Theres lots to do with guns, in this modern society which now hates them wth a passion.
Going off half cocked? -- In flintlock pistol days, it took more effort to pull the mainspring back to full cock and ensure a better fire than pulling it back halfway where a misfire was more lokely - going off half cocked.....
Could make your effort a flash in the pan - The priming powder was in a 'pan' that accepted the spark gererated by the firing mechanism if it performed correctly. If you were careless in priming the weapon, it became a 'flash in the pan' without a bullet being expended.
If you were careless and let moisture get into your priming powder, it became damp and would not fire. The Zullu's would have you and you would be too late to learn the lesson of keeping your powder dry...
Before said Zulu's (or other heathen of the accepted day) made their charge, you had to load your weapon.
Bullets, before the current lead/copper/brass/whatever crop were made in waxed paper whereby the bullet and charge were contained within. If the said Zulu charge was inevetable, you had to take your paper 'bullet' and bite off the lead and paper part and force it down the barrel after pouring the powder charge down - bite the bullet time....
There are a few more, just cant remember them offhand.... :y
seem to recall that the origin of the phrase "the whole 9 yards" related to length of machine gun belts that fed guns in US planes in WW2. Certainly appears an American phrase, although I also heard that this was rubbish as the phrase didnt become popular until 1960s :-/-though it is still supposedly derived from a military useage (Vietnam conflict?). Like Qi on here somedays isnt it? Methinks Id be Allen Davies though ;D :y
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Great addions
Thanks - Live & Learn :y