Interesting facts copied from a Facebook post - I don't know if it's all true

[expressman33]

You may have seen these before but it does make an interesting read

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to 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 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.

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.

[Sarah]

So... not facts then... were they posted by Kellyanne Conway?

[BeautifulSunshine]

So... not facts then... were they posted by Kellyanne Conway?

Not facts, etymology of words and phrases is not a science. I'm sure there is a Professor of Etymology who would disagree with the conclusion of everyone of the points.

[macliam]

Etymology is the study of the history of words... and, by extension, phrases. I love it... and speaking French, Spanish, Portuguese and a "Cúpla focal" in Irish too, it's always fun. The suggestions posted are mainly a fanciful collection of half-truths and the recycling of earlier errors (Typical of Facebook).

The problem is that things are seldom as straight-forward as they appear. Case in point: Woodbridge in Suffolk is obviously named after a wooden bridge across the River Deben, yes? NO - it derives from "Woden's Brugge"... Woden's town, named after the chief god of the Angles who were the inhabitants of the town.

So a quick look through the claims:

The suggested derivation of "raining cats and dogs." only goes back to a chain email in 1999 "Life in the 1500s". More likely is the situation described by Dean Swift, where flooded streets were littered with the dead animals that had been thrown in the river and washed out in heavy rain. The derivation of "upper crust" also dates back to that same 1999 email, so is just repetition, not truth. It is as likely that the derivation is to do with "crust" as in crust of fat.... the fat rises and the richest fat rises to the top.

"Canopy" beds were never a thing, it's an American expression. Four poster beds had canopies, but were not generally used in places with straw ceilings as they were the reserve of the rich. They also had side curtains, both for privacy (such as there was) and to exclude cold daughts. Later the side curtains were removed to boast that the house had no draughts, but the style of bed remained to show wealth.

"Dirt poor" could have any number of derivations.... and althought "threshold" is as stated, straw was spread on dirt floors too..... few people had access to slate. "Bring home the bacon" is more likely a reference to going to market and having the wealth to buy food. "Chew the fat" also exists as "chew the rag" and no single source is known.... but it seems to come from army or naval usage.

Tomatoes ARE poisonous, they are members of the belladonna family, so early variants may well have had greater concentrations of tomatin, a toxic alkaloid. Potatoes were initially distrusted as well, as unripe ones also contain a toxin. However "lead" cups and plates were NEVER used, pewter is an alloy that reduces the toxicity and was used as dinnerware by the rich. The poor used wooden cups and platters.

The derivation of a wake as due to poisoning is fanciful - "wake" has nothing to do with "wake up". Life was hard, death was a release, so people celebrated the good fortune of the corpse. The name derives from "Oíche mhaith" ("eeyaWahch") the Irish for "Good Night". This has become mixed up with the religious vigil held over a corpse to ensure reception into heaven and apocryphal stories of the "dead" who regained consciousness.

The "dead ringer" derivation is also tosh.... the phrase dates from the C19th and refers to "ringers" or substitutes, as in experienced people brought in to replace amateurs. "Dead" is used in the sense of "very", as in dead cert, dead centre, etc. Bells WERE attached to the toes of the dead in mortuaries, due to the inexact science of medicine and the possibility of coma, not death.... but nobody dead could ring, could they!

[BeautifulSunshine]

Etymology is the study of the history of words... and, by extension, phrases. I love it... and speaking French, Spanish, Portuguese and a "Cúpla focal" in Irish too, it's always fun. The suggestions posted are mainly a fanciful collection of half-truths and the recycling of earlier errors (Typical of Facebook).

The problem is that things are seldom as straight-forward as they appear. Case in point: Woodbridge in Suffolk is obviously named after a wooden bridge across the River Deben, yes? NO - it derives from "Woden's Brugge"... Woden's town, named after the chief god of the Angles who were the inhabitants of the town.

So a quick look through the claims:

The suggested derivation of "raining cats and dogs." only goes back to a chain email in 1999 "Life in the 1500s". More likely is the situation described by Dean Swift, where flooded streets were littered with the dead animals that had been thrown in the river and washed out in heavy rain. The derivation of "upper crust" also dates back to that same 1999 email, so is just repetition, not truth. It is as likely that the derivation is to do with "crust" as in crust of fat.... the fat rises and the richest fat rises to the top.

"Canopy" beds were never a thing, it's an American expression. Four poster beds had canopies, but were not generally used in places with straw ceilings as they were the reserve of the rich. They also had side curtains, both for privacy (such as there was) and to exclude cold daughts. Later the side curtains were removed to boast that the house had no draughts, but the style of bed remained to show wealth.

"Dirt poor" could have any number of derivations.... and althought "threshold" is as stated, straw was spread on dirt floors too..... few people had access to slate. "Bring home the bacon" is more likely a reference to going to market and having the wealth to buy food. "Chew the fat" also exists as "chew the rag" and no single source is known.... but it seems to come from army or naval usage.

Tomatoes ARE poisonous, they are members of the belladonna family, so early variants may well have had greater concentrations of tomatin, a toxic alkaloid. Potatoes were initially distrusted as well, as unripe ones also contain a toxin. However "lead" cups and plates were NEVER used, pewter is an alloy that reduces the toxicity and was used as dinnerware by the rich. The poor used wooden cups and platters.

The derivation of a wake as due to poisoning is fanciful - "wake" has nothing to do with "wake up". Life was hard, death was a release, so people celebrated the good fortune of the corpse. The name derives from "Oíche mhaith" ("eeyaWahch") the Irish for "Good Night". This has become mixed up with the religious vigil held over a corpse to ensure reception into heaven and apocryphal stories of the "dead" who regained consciousness.

The "dead ringer" derivation is also tosh.... the phrase dates from the C19th and refers to "ringers" or substitutes, as in experienced people brought in to replace amateurs. "Dead" is used in the sense of "very", as in dead cert, dead centre, etc. Bells WERE attached to the toes of the dead in mortuaries, due to the inexact science of medicine and the possibility of coma, not death.... but nobody dead could ring, could they!

+1

Respect macliam for your very useful language skills - you've done yourself a favour. There's nothing quiet like speaking the local language of the country you are in fluently - an invaluable asset whilst travelling.