Posted on 11/20/2011 5:11:29 PM PST by Jim Robinson
Where did “piss poor” come from ?
We 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 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!!! 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!
Soon we'll all be Piss Poor
Love>>>OldDog
As it happens, I can provide this one! I figured it out while reading up on the making of bowstrings. It turns out that "tow" is a name for a grade of linen fibers. I'm sure it's a low grade, as we still call burlap bags "towsacks" around here.
Take it with a lot more than just one grain of salt:
http://www.snopes.com/language/phrases/1500.asp
I’ve never found the definitive reason a jon boat is called a jon boat. It bothers me.
LOL!
The Schlitz in Pearl's pants made Bud wiser.
Nope a Chamber pot is larger and has a lid. A Thunder mug is smaller with no lid, One you get out of bed to use the other is for those who could not get out of bed. Before Bed pans.
” The streets also served as sewers.”
Hence the term, zuccoti park is a cesspool of despair.
Slop jar contents were also collected for use in gun powder manufacture. In a final step black powder is “corned” by moistening it into a paste, then it is dried and ground into grains of the various sizes. Black powder corned by moistening with stale urine gets an extra boost from the nitrate content.
Down south there is a phrase, “I’m fixin to go to town.” meaning “I am about the go to town.” The phrase ‘fixin’ or ‘fixing’ came from the fact that going to town was a relatively uncommon event, especially for the country people. They might go to town only every two or three months. During that interval, it was not uncommon for the wagon to be used for gathering food, repairing fence, or other jobs on the farm and it was not uncommon for the wagon to be in disrepair. In order to repair the wagon it had to be ‘fixed’. Thus when someone came to the home where a wagon was in the process of being repaired, the phrase, “’fixing’ to go to town”. ‘Fixing’, originally meant repairing, has taken on the meaning of ‘about’ or ‘preparing’.
isn’t a canopy like a small pot of p*ss?
No kidding.
A “tow head” is a very blonde - close to white - haired child. The meaning of “tow” in this case is made of flax or hemp. It is said to have come from German origin - “touw” meaning flax (which is yellow) or hemp fiber prepared for spinning.
Thanks folks. I can now tell my German heritage mother the answer to our question. :)
In the middle ages piss was also used to wash clothing as well as for tanning. Played a large part in everyday life.
The "dead" in dead ringer is from the form of dead that has a different meaning, as used in "dead reckoning".
LOL! At least you didn’t make a typo——
And now she is sadder,
Bud Weiser.
“Black powder corned by moistening with stale urine gets an extra boost from the nitrate content.”
Human and animal urine was used to make the saltpeter third of the black powder recipe, sulfur and carbon were the other two thirds.
I made my first batch while I was still in Cub Scouts, LOL
Back then encyclopedias had all kinds of neat stuff to learn, and I read them like some kids read comic books.
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