History Lesson

[KenpoTess]

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 still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell so 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 dogs, 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 really 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 kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a "threshhold."

* * * * * *

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 the 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 and 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 "upper crust."

* * * * * *

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock them 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 thought 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."

 

[OULobo]

Now that is some really cool trivia.

 

[KenpoTess]

The word 'Okay'


Meaning
Satisfactory - all correct.
Origin
Possibly the most researched phrase of them all, but with no clear evidence as to the origin. The contenders are:

1. A shortened version of 'Oll Korrect'. Used by President Andrew Jackson.
2. 'Old Kinderhook' - nickname of President Martin van Buren.
3. 'Aux quais' - the mark put on bales of cotton in Mississippi river ports.
4. '0 killed' - the report of the night's death toll during the First World War.
5. 'Orl Korrect' - military reporting indicating troops were in good order


Find Many More here

 

[Andi]

Originally posted by KenpoTess
England is old and small

:rofl: :rofl: Sorry but that opening line cracked me up. Good random trivia. And what a site! That "what football is all about" bit is ace.

 

[Jay Bell]

From Snopes --

Most people got married in June because they took their YEARLY bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.

False. Shockingly, the standard practice among common folk at that time was to be bathed at birth and again when laid out before burial. Bathing was considered hazardous to the health, and as such, no sensible person subjected himself to it, let alone on a yearly basis.

Although today's brides carry flowers simply because it is now the custom to do so, at one time bridal bouquets were symbols of sexuality and fertility. Covering up anyone's bad smell played no part in why this custom came into being.

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."

False. Although the admonition against throwing the baby out with the bathwater dates back to the 16th century, its roots are Germanic, not English. Its first written occurrence was in Thomas Murner's 1512 versified satirical book Narrenbeschwörung, and its meaning is purely metaphorical. (In simpler terms, no babies, no bathwater, just a memorable mental image meant to drive home a bit of advice against overreaction.)

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 dogs, 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."

False. Mice, rats, and bugs definitely take up residence in thatch roofs — to them it's a highrise hay mow. Cats and dogs, however, don't go up there.

The saying it's raining cats and dogs was first noted in the 17th century, not the 16th. A number of theories as to its origin exist:


By evoking the image of cats and dogs fighting in a riotous, all-out manner, it expresses the fury of a sudden downpour.

Primitive drainage systems in use in the 17th century could be overwhelmed by heavy rainstorms, leading to gutters overflowing with debris that included dead animals.

In Northen European mythology, it is believed cats influence the weather and dogs represent wind.

The saying might have derived from the obsolete French word catadoupe, meaning waterfall or cataract.

It might have come from a similar-sounding Greek phrase meaning "an unlikely occurrence."

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 really 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.

False. Canopied four-poster beds were the province of the well-to-do, not the ordinary folk. Possibly their origin had to do with a desire to display wealth conspicuously by showing off rich tapestries and fabrics. Beautifully thick wall hangings were likewise a way of dressing up a room while at the same time putting on the dog a bit. (The hangings also served to keep the warmth of a room in.)

Such fripperies were not the norm in lesser households where available funds would more likely be directed to keeping people fed and clothed than to decorative flourishes.

The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt. Hence the saying "dirt poor."

False. Dirt poor is an American expression, not a British one. Claims that the saying grew out of British class distinctions as measured by style of flooring are just plain silly.

As mentioned briefly above in the "everybody slept on the floor" discussion, floors were never bare dirt anyway. Fresh reeds were laid on them every day and thrown out every night, with another fresh set brought in for sleeping on. In the summer months, aromatic herbs might be added to this vegetive underfooting.

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 kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway. Hence the saying a "threshhold."

As stated above, the reeds were changed daily. Besides, who ever heard of calling reeds, rushes, or sheaves of grass "threshes"? One threshes plants to separate stalk from seed, but no part of the plant is called the "thresh."

The "thresh" part of threshold apparently comes from a prehistoric source that denoted "making noise" and is related to the Old Church Slavonik tresku, meaning "crash." By the time it reached Germanic (thresk-), it was probably being used for "stamp the feet noisily" (something that's a good idea to do in a doorway if you're wearing muddy boots).

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 the 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."

Even some cooking practices of today call for tossing whatever's on hand into the stewpot, with new ingredients added each day to whatever is left over. French bouillabaisse, for instance, is sometimes made this way, as are any number of "peasants' stews."

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".

The term chewing the fat doesn't seem to have been around prior to the American Civil War. One theory links it to sailors attempting to chomp on the tough rind found in salt pork sea rations. As Richard Lederer puts it, "What seems clear is that chewing the fat, like shooting the breeze, provides little sustenance for the amount of mastication involved."

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 and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.

Tomatoes were native to South America and, as such, weren't introduced to Britain until the 19th century — those living in 16th century Britain had no knowledge of this foodstuff. By the way, tomatoes were not all that popular in America until the 19th century because they're of the nightshade family, and many assumed this foodstuff must also be 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 "upper crust."

Even a blind squirrel can find an acorn once in a while, and that appears to be the case here — the wag who thought up this e-mailed leg pull accidentally stumbled onto an actual origin.

"Kutt the upper crust (of a loaf of bread) for your soverayne [sovereign]" was good manners in 1460. The custom at the time was to slice the choice top portion off a loaf and present it to the highest-ranking guests at the table. Centuries later, this practice led to calling the elite who ate the upper crust "the upper crust."

The rest of the bread was not apportioned out by rank, though.

Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky. The combination would sometimes knock them 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."

Waking the dead is an ancient custom that extends around the world and has existed in Europe for at least the past thousand years. The term refers to the practice of watching over the corpse during the period between death and burial. Partly, this had to do with making sure someone was always around in case the corpse woke up (see our Buried Alive page for numerous stories about premature interments), but the watchers were also there to make sure household animals and assorted vermin were kept off the deceased.

Some so feared the possibility of live burial that they left instructions for special tests to be performed on their bodies to make sure they were actually dead. Surgical incisions, the application of boiling hot liquids, touching red-hot irons to their flesh, stabbing them through the heart, or even decapitation were all specified at different times as a way of making sure these people didn't wake up six feet under.

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.

Burying the dead in previously-used graves happened with some frequency throughout Europe, both before, during, and after the 1600s. It didn't have to do with any particular country being too small to hold all the dead bodies, though — it had to do with the shortage of space in established cemeteries. The family of the deceased would habitually look to inter the loved one in the graveyard attached to their parish and, like any other piece of land, graveyards were finite — they could only be used to house so many before they filled up and older tenants had to be moved out.

Sometimes remains were dug up, and sometimes what was left was pushed aside, with the newcomer loaded in on top of whoever was already there. Most folks accepted this practice, provided the old bones remained near the church. When bones were disinterred, they were taken to a charnel house, in a process termed second burial.

English common law states a grave is held only temporarily (not owned) and its use terminated "with the dissolution of the body." Grave inhabitants are granted "the right of appropriation of the soil to the body interred therein until its remains shall have so mingled with the earth as to have destroyed its identity." In other words, once you're bones, you've lost your rights.

Modern cemeteries in many countries routinely rent graves for two to thirty years. At the end of that period, the bones are disinterred and reburied in accordance with that country's cemetery laws. Vancouver, BC, successfully uses a 30-year-renewable lease for its graves. In London, England, the wealthy have for many years obtained 99-year leases on their graves in prestigious cemeteries. (Graves for purchase, though, are scarce.)

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.

Scratch marks have been found on the inside of some coffins and tombs. Our Buried Alive page details some cases of this. Such marks, however, were a relatively rare find, certainly nothing on a level even remotely approaching the "one out of 25" figure given in the e-mail.

So they thought 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."

Premature burial signalling devices only came into fashion in the 19th century; they weren't around in the 15th. Some of these 19th century coffins blew whistles and raised flags if their inhabitants awoke from their dirt naps.

The earliest documented use of the phrase graveyard shift comes from a 1907 Collier's Magazine. However, graveyard watch was noted in 1895, with that term referring to a shipboard watch beginning at midnight and lasting usually four hours.

Saved by the bell is a 1930s term from the world of boxing, where a beleaguered fighter being counted out would have his fate delayed by the ringing of the bell to signify the end of the round. Need we mention that although fisticuffs were around in the 1500s, the practice of ringing a bell to end a round wasn't?

Likewise, dead ringer has nothing to do with the prematurely buried signalling their predicament to those still above ground — the term means an exact double, not someone buried alive. Dead ringer was first used in the late 19th century, with ringer referring to someone's physical double and dead meaning "absolute" (as in dead heat and dead right).

A ringer was a better horse swapped into a race in place of a nag. These horses would have to resemble each other well enough to fool the naked eye, hence how the term came to mean an exact double.

To sum up, though it's entertaining to toy with mental images of cats and dogs falling through thatch roofs and shudder deliciously over the thought of our forebearers dining off wooden platters that had worms waving out of them, that's about as far as one should take this craziness. No matter how many inboxes this popular e-mail has landed in, it never once enlightened anyone. Indeed, it probably left more than a few looking like utter fools when they tried to pass this "knowledge" along to friends better versed in phrase origins.

As always, the bottom line is to take such missives with a grain of salt.

 

[satans.barber]

Originally posted by KenpoTess
England is old and small

Small, yes, old...um, aren't we exactly the same age as the rest of the world

Ian.

 

[KenpoTess]

*goes off muttering to self.. Not gonna post anymore fun trivia*

 

[Rich Parsons]

Originally posted by KenpoTess
*goes off muttering to self.. Not gonna post anymore fun trivia*

Shhh Tess,
The English go to all that trouble to tell us our culture is way too young to have real culture and now they want to me the same age and not old

Sorry Ian I could not resist

 

[don bohrer]

Some people spoil all the fun! :shrug: Don't listen to the Nay sayers Tess!


don

 

[satans.barber]

Well excuse me if I don't hang around arguing with you lot, but I've got some rooves to thatch before it gets dark

Ian.

 

[Rich Parsons]

Originally posted by satans.barber
Well excuse me if I don't hang around arguing with you lot, but I've got some rooves to thatch before it gets dark

Ian.

Ian,

Just remember to let the cats and dogs out