Where do certain sayings come from??

[SRUAlmn]

Do you ever wonder where sayings originated?

'Geeze o Pete' - who is Pete?
'Geeze Louise' - who is Louise?
'For Pete's Sake' - again, who is Pete?


What else can you think of, and does anyone know of where any of these came from?

 

[dizagain]

LOL!! Just this minute, DD is reading a Junie B Jones book aloud to me and she asked me what "run through the mill" means. I have no idea - anyone?

 

[jrydberg]

"For Pete's sake" is a variation on "for Christ's sake" that is more acceptable among religious folks. As such, I'd guess Pete would be St. Peter, but not sure on that.

 

[tkd lisa]

Don't know about the first ones, but "run through the mill" means that they look really bad. Imagine if someone had been run through a grist mill. Another way I've heard that one put is "ridden hard and put away wet" from the fact that if you didn't groom your horse after riding it very hard, the horse suffered.

What about "the whole 9 yards"?

 

[Pam]

Run through the mill, to me, means that someone has had a very bad/rough time and it shows in their facial expression/appearance. We also say "run through the wringer."

I also say, "Geez, Louise" and "For Pete's Sake." Generations of my family have said this and I just picked up on it.

SRUAlum, here's one for you: "Don't Knock The Rock."

 

[CEDmom]

You got me curious as well. Here's a site I found:


http://members.aol.com/MorelandC/HaveOrigins.htm

Here's what it says about "For Pete's sake":

For the love of Pete

Meaning: I am frustrated with this situation.
Example: For the love of Pete, can we just pick a restaurant and stop searching? I am hungry.
Origin: This phrase and phrases like "for Pete's sake" are euphemisms for the phrases "for the love of God/Christ" or "for God's/ Christ's sake" and hail from a time when those phases were considered blasphemous. Nowadays phrases like "for the love of god" are commonly used, but the euphemisms are still used.
Why Pete? Most likely it is a reference to the catholic Saint Peter.

Other phrases with similar origins are: "Zounds!" (archaic British slang), is a contraction of "christ's wounds", "oh my goodness" and "oh my gosh" for "oh my God", and "gosh darn it" for "God damn it"

 

[monkeyboy]

I always liked

Madder than a wet hen

 

[AllyandJack]

I almost afraid to post mine because I'm not sure if it means something obscene or not!

What the heck does it mean when people say "How's tricks?"

I don't get it......I hear it all the time, but have no idea what it means.

 

[perdidobay]

Run through the mill


For example, to have a millstone around one’s neck is a graphic reference to the heaviest, most intractable object that anyone in a village would ever encounter.
************To be put, or to go through the mill means to be exposed to hardship or rough treatment, just like corn being ground ************ (the first citation in OED2 is from 1818, but it surely must be older in the spoken language). The proverb all is grist for the mill, meaning “everything can be made useful, or be a source of profit” illustrates the word grist, “a quantity of corn to be ground” (it derives from an Old English word from which we also get “grind”). The miller ground whatever was brought to him, and charged for the grinding, so all corn arriving at the mill represented income for him, regardless of its quality. Again, this is first attested in the sixteenth century, but is probably much older. The term grist mill was once common in the USA as it was in Britain to describe a mill open to all comers, who brought their batches of grain, or “grists”, to be ground. OED2 quotes the West Somerset Word-book of 1886:

 

[monkeyboy]

Originally posted by AllyandJack
What the heck does it mean when people say "How's tricks?"

 

[SRUAlmn]

SRUAlum, here's one for you: "Don't Knock The Rock."

THAT'S RIGHT! Are you a Rock fan, Pam????



Here's some more,

'Jimminy Christmas'

My boyfriend's whole family up through great grandparents say
'Oh sugar beans and rice' for 'oh darn it'

And I have always wondered where swear words ever came from. I mean, who was the first person to ever say one of those words and then say, ok, this is going to be a bad word?

 

[perdidobay]

scuttlebutt

Scuttle is a fairly old term for a small rectangular hole cut into the deck or side of a ship for light, ventilation, and sometimes communication between decks. A butt was simple a wooden cask for provisions. Traditionally, a butt of water was to last for two days. The problem was, how to keep the crew from drinking the whole cask in one day. Eventually, someone thought to scuttle a butt (put a hole in it halfway up), attach it to the upper deck, and have the water ration poured in each day up to the hole. Before long, the place to get a drink became known as the scuttled butt, and eventually, the scuttlebutt. The term came to be applied to rumors passed around while waiting to get a drink.

 

[SRUAlmn]

That website is REALLY interesting! I emailed it to my mom who is a middle school language arts teacher. I think the kids would think it was pretty cool. Thanks

 

[browneyes]

The Geeze part came along when Pete and Louise, who had been married for 20 years or so, got into a fight and Louise hit Pete in the head with a frying pan. Pete, who was ACME insured, could only say Geeze for Louise, and Louise made fun of Pete by mimicking him. The ACME insurance company asked Louise to stop hitting Pete in the head, for Pete's Sake.

 

[Pam]

THAT'S RIGHT! Are you a Rock fan, Pam????

How about: "Blob's Subs"??

(actually - I live at the Rock! ) And did you know that we are now a "wet" town - yep - two restaurants now serve alcohol!!

 

[Magix]

Originally posted by tkd lisa

What about "the whole 9 yards"?

Okay, well, I had this whole explanation about how "the whole 9 yards" refers to the amount of sail set on a three-rigged ship, but then I realized how stupid that was, because a three-rigged ship would have WAY more than 9 yards of canvas. I then read that maybe it refers to the number of actual yards (or spars) on a three-rigged ship, but that's dumb, too, because they had more yards than that counting things like the spritsail yard and the royals (sometimes used).

There are whole web discussions devoted to this term and it's origins. I always thought I knew exactly where it came from, but now I realize I know absolutely nothing about it's origins. Well... you learn something new everyday, huh? Or in this case, you unlearn something new everyday!

 

[dizagain]

Originally posted by perdidobay
Run through the mill


For example, to have a millstone around one’s neck is a graphic reference to the heaviest, most intractable object that anyone in a village would ever encounter.
************To be put, or to go through the mill means to be exposed to hardship or rough treatment, just like corn being ground ************ (the first citation in OED2 is from 1818, but it surely must be older in the spoken language). The proverb all is grist for the mill, meaning “everything can be made useful, or be a source of profit” illustrates the word grist, “a quantity of corn to be ground” (it derives from an Old English word from which we also get “grind”). The miller ground whatever was brought to him, and charged for the grinding, so all corn arriving at the mill represented income for him, regardless of its quality. Again, this is first attested in the sixteenth century, but is probably much older. The term grist mill was once common in the USA as it was in Britain to describe a mill open to all comers, who brought their batches of grain, or “grists”, to be ground. OED2 quotes the West Somerset Word-book of 1886:

Oh. Thanks, I think...brain overload!

How about "Cat's got your toungue" or I "got your goat" ?
My fave with the kiddos is "I didn't fall of a turnip truck yesterday". Why, I dunno.:rolleyes

 

[orvilleair]

Used to work in the rural mid Ohio area, and everyone called
lunch dinner. The meals you had up there are breakfast, dinner and supper. In my part of the state it's always been breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The worm has turned.

 

[Pam]

The meals you had up there are breakfast, dinner and supper.

That's what I say, too. This just drives my teenage DD up the wall. She thinks I am so unrefined.....

 

[leahannpen]

How about:

IT'S A HORSE A PIECE


??????

Weird one there, no?

I've never heard of some of these other ones.