where did the phrase "piss poor" come from

[Jdriller]

Where did "piss poor" come from?

















If you're young and hip, this is still interesting.


NOW THIS IS A REAL EDUCATION













Us older people need to learn something new every day...

Just to keep the grey matter tuned up.

Where did "Piss Poor" come from? Interesting history.

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot.

And then once it was full it was taken and 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" and 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 1500's

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 odour.

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; “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!!!

So get out there and educate someone!
Share these facts with a friend.
Inside every older person is a younger person wondering,
"What the heck happened?"
We'll be friends until we are old and senile.
Then we'll be new friends.

Smile, it gives your face something to do!

=

[Ms. Milani]

Now if this was covered in History class I would've liked it a LOT more. Very interesting!

[Keyzer Soze]

Thanks for sharing Driller...........

[FootLong]

Actually...don't believe everything you read on internet. Plenty of 'false etymology' pieces going around, for some time now. This is just another one made up to generate traffic.

Always do the fact check. (Commercial tanneries used chemical compounds, not piss, in the processing of animal skins.)

http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/wagon.asp

[Precious_b]

Urine was used for cleaning clothe.

[satexasguy]

urine was also used to whiten teeth, but caused then to rot as well. I believe the French and English would do this.

[Precious_b]

Looking at all the Talking Heads on TV, there must be an inner core of Golden Shower people

[Guest120113]

So where did " up shit creek" come from... and what happened to the paddles???

[joesnapshot]

Originally Posted by Ginger Lovelace

So where did " up shit creek" come from... and what happened to the paddles???

Best explanation I could find:
This phrase may have come from Haslar Creek in Portsmouth harbour, a 'salt' creek (may be origin of alternative 'up a shit creek'). Wounded sailors during Nelson's time, were taken there to be admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar to die or recover. The ship's moored up in the Solent and the wounded soldiers were transported up Haslar creek by tramline hence 'Up the creek without a paddle'. They were held prisoner so that they would not desert while being treated, and some tried to escape by going through the sewers to the creek (another suggested origin of the alternative 'up a shit creek'). Without a paddle this would be hopeless, hence the phrase 'up the creek (without a paddle)' to mean being trapped, stuck or in trouble. Much very obscure navy related jargon entered popular culture in the seafaring peoples of the British Isles, and thus entered the English language as a whole.
From Wiktionary-http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/up_the_creek

[rockerrick]

How about " getting pissed on " , or " don't piss on my back and te me it's raining " ?

[Guest120113]

Originally Posted by joesnapshot

Best explanation I could find:
This phrase may have come from Haslar Creek in Portsmouth harbour, a 'salt' creek (may be origin of alternative 'up a shit creek'). Wounded sailors during Nelson's time, were taken there to be admitted to the Royal Naval Hospital Haslar to die or recover. The ship's moored up in the Solent and the wounded soldiers were transported up Haslar creek by tramline hence 'Up the creek without a paddle'. They were held prisoner so that they would not desert while being treated, and some tried to escape by going through the sewers to the creek (another suggested origin of the alternative 'up a shit creek'). Without a paddle this would be hopeless, hence the phrase 'up the creek (without a paddle)' to mean being trapped, stuck or in trouble. Much very obscure navy related jargon entered popular culture in the seafaring peoples of the British Isles, and thus entered the English language as a whole.
From Wiktionary-http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/up_the_creek

THANKS JOE!

How about... " COLDER THAN A WITCH'S TITTY?"
Who was the witch... and why did she have cold titties???

[Keyzer Soze]

Maybe from riding her broom on a cold winters night,not sure but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.............

[rockerrick]

And colder than a well diggers ass ?

[joesnapshot]

Originally Posted by Ginger Lovelace

THANKS JOE!

How about... " COLDER THAN A WITCH'S TITTY?"
Who was the witch... and why did she have cold titties???

[joesnapshot]

Originally Posted by rockerrick

And colder than a well diggers ass ?

You Asked!



"In the middle of a particularly cold winter a friend, who lives in Chicago, noted that it was “colder than a well digger’s ass.” I hadn’t heard anyone use that phrase in a while and it made me wonder where the phrase came from. I still don’t know the actual origin of the phrase, but as I understand, the traditional job of a well digger required using a shovel and bucket to dig down deep enough into the earth that water would fill the void that was dug out, thus creating a well. (It doesn’t take a genius to compare one’s anus to a hole in the ground, does it?)

Apparently, once you dig deeper than about 10 feet, the ground temperature is a fairly constant 53 degrees Fahrenheit. If a well digger’s ass has conductive properties similar to brass, and the ambient 53 degree temperature transfers evenly to the backside of a well digger’s anatomy, I suppose that might feel chilly, if one’s hands were on said well digger’s buttocks at the time of excavation. Factoring in the effort required to dig a hole in the ground by hand, even by a fairly fit, assiduous well digger, and the notable discharge of internal body heat, a deeper analysis would suggest those buttocks might be a balmy 82 degrees, which as most of us would agree, isn’t that cold. Heck, most of us don’t even get to swim where it’s that warm.

So why is it that well diggers get all the rectal mercurial glory? It’s true that doctors traditionally prefer the temperature taken from a rectal thermometer because it’s supposed to be more accurate. However, despite these common medical beliefs, I assert that rectal thermometers aren’t what they’re cracked up to be, even if used appropriately. Unless there are a lot of scientific data to back it up, there is no logical reason to think a well digger has an ass any colder than anyone else’s.

If we were to consider average ass temperature across various occupations I wouldn’t be surprised if lawyers, on average, have colder asses than well diggers. In fact I’d bet my warmer than average ass they do.

And what about Olympic ice skaters? They MUST have cold asses, spinning around in a Lycra leotard at odd hours of the day and night on the rink, exposing much of their thinly veiled privates, and everything else in that vicinity, to considerably chilly extremes. So let’s try that phrase on for size.

“Brr, it’s colder than an Olympic skater’s ass out here.”

Well, it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue like the well digger phrase, but bobsledders surely have cold asses too, so let’s try that one.

“It’s colder than a bobsledder’s ass out here”.

Yes, much better.

Well, stay warm, and take care in covering your ass. You never know how important that core temperature might be."

http://dreamsteep.com/writing/humor/...ggers-ass.html