Origin of words and sayings

[kinggabby]

The post about saying got me to thinking.
We use words and sayings that have been around along time. But do we know where they came from or where they started? I will start.

#1 No comment from the peanut gallery?

The peanut gallery was where the kids sat on the Howdy Doody show.

#2 Cops

The term coppers and cops come straight from England. LEO in England used to have badges made from Copper . So they were coppers at first and then shortened to Cops.

 

[ConstitutionCowboy]

Flash In The Pan

When the powder in the pan of your flint lock rifle ignited but failed to ignite the powder in the barrel, you had a "Flash In The Pan".

Woody

 

[HMFIC]

SON OF A GUN:

It is claimed that in British naval slang this term refers to a child of questionable parentage conceived on the gun deck, hence 'son of a gun'. However, the term possibly predates this claimed origin, and Snopes.com lists it as being part of the English lexicon since at least 1708.[1] It is sometimes claimed that the saying has its origin in the supposed practice of women travelling on board ship and giving birth on a sectioned off portion of the gun deck. For instance, Admiral William Henry Smyth wrote in his 1867 book, The Sailor's Word-Book:[2] Son of a gun, an epithet conveying contempt in a slight degree, and originally applied to boys born afloat, when women were permitted to accompany their husbands to sea; one admiral declared he literally was thus cradled, under the breast of a gun-carriage.

 

[ratski]

Flash In The Pan

When the powder in the pan of your flint lock rifle ignited but failed to ignite the powder in the barrel, you had a "Flash In The Pan".

Woody

Goes along with "don't go off half-cocked". The flint locks had two setting cocked and half-cocked. You couldn't pull the trigger when it was "half-cocked".

Dave

 

[HMFIC]

Goes along with "don't go off half-cocked". The flint locks had two setting cocked and half-cocked. You couldn't pull the trigger when it was "half-cocked".

Dave

Also related to "Lock, Stock and Barrel" as a phrase describing something complete.

 

[Perplexed]

#1 No comment from the peanut gallery?

The peanut gallery was where the kids sat on the Howdy Doody show.

This term, which originated in the days of vaudeville (late 1800s to early 1900s) actually predates the Howdy Doody show, which took place in the 1940s.

 

[SoonerATC]

"sold down the river" dates back to slavery days, when slaves were sold in the North and then shipped down the river to the cotton fields of the South.

"Gerrymandering" dates back to Eldridge Gerry, former Governor of Massachusetts, who redrew the district lines in the state to benefit his party. Supposedly, one of the districts was said to look like a salamander, so the Boston Gazette termed the re-districting "Gerrymandering", mixing the governor's name and "salamander".

 

[WTJ]

The Whole Nine Yards: The length of .50 US belted ammunition loaded into fighter aircraft during WW II. To expend the belt into a target.

 

[Razur]

"Pay through the nose"
Apparently this dates back to Viking days.
Well, the later Viking days when they eased back on the raiding, and just demanded payment in lieu of an attack.
Vikings would run a seax (knife) through the nostril of whoever was representing a town which didn't want to pay the demanded tribute.
Thus they paid, through the nose.

 

[4play]

"Pot to piss in" We were so poor we didn't have a pot to piss in.

In Medieval times they did not have indoor plumbing, they would use a pot and take them outside to dump in the gutter. A person who did not have a pot to piss in was indeed poor.