The Origins of Common Sayings

Going to hell in a handbasket

The concept of the "handbaskets" originated with Charlemagne in what is now Germany around 1000 A.D. Charlemagne was engaged in some guerilla warfare with various teutonic/goth tribes and found the accounts by his generals of enemy casualties rather suspect. He therefore ordered that the right hand of all those slain should be delivered to him for purposes of proof. The proof was brought in what were soon dubbed "handbaskets". Unfortunately, desperate generals in areas where the war was not going well eventually began to include any old hands in the baskets, not just those of enemy soldiers killed in combat. Eventually, the practice was discontinued, but they had all these "handbaskets" left over and back then you didn't discard anything that was still useful. So they gave the baskets to the womenfolk who used them to put things in that were less gruesome than hands--like towels or fruit or whatever.

The saying "going to hell in a handbasket" derives directly from Charlemagne's practice, since the tribes he fought against, eventually assimilated into the Holy Roman Empire believed that the taking of a man's sword hand meant that he was going to hell since the gate of Heaven would not open for him without a whole body being buried (remember, back then these tribes would bury their warriors with their entire household, willingly or not!, so that they could assist them in the afterlife). In fact, Charlemagne won major concessions from many of these tribes simply by returning the hands so they could be buried with the bodies. How they sorted the hands upon return is anybody's guess, but I believe it involved some sort of manual system.

No fury like a woman scorned

This one is commonly misattributed to Shakespeare; the quote in fact comes from William Congreve's The Mourning Bride, and reads, "Heaven has (hath?) no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a (no?) fury like a woman scorned."

Mind your P's and Q's

This one likely comes from old taverns. When the men would start to get a little rowdy, they would be reminded to "mind their Pints and Quarts" i.e. don't drink too much. This would ensure they would not get into trouble on the way home...or when they got home.

Other possibilities for the origin: barkeeps had to be extra-careful not to transpose their p's and q's when calculating the beer bill. Other possible origins: 1) children learning to write often confuse the two letters; and 2) apprentice printers back in the days of hand typesetting had to be careful picking out type, because they were looking at the letters backwards and were therefore likely to mistake p's for q's.

Tip

This is an acronym for "To Insure Promptness" which was written on a sign that pub owners placed near a box on the bar where people could drop in coins. Tips used to be given before service.

The Devil to Pay

The planking on the decks of wooden ships is never quite perfect, so they would stuff oakum into the gaps which would swell and keep the deck below watertight - a job called 'paying'. The gap between the last plank and the ship's hull was called the 'devil' and was a right pain to make watertight because it was a small, awkward space, but it had to be done - hence the sayings "the devil to pay", "a devil of a job" and "between the devil and the deep blue sea."

Cold enough to freeze the balls off brass monkeys

Best saying ever. Iron cannonballs were stored on brass rails, which were known as "brass monkeys" (just as the small boys who delivered gunpowder to the guns were known as powder monkeys). But iron and brass contract at different rates when the temperature drops, so in cold weather the brass rail literally pings cannonballs onto the deck. The saying was banned on shore in England, with a stop on rum for offenders who were caught, from 1797 because it horrified so many admiralty wives.

Now you tell me -- which one of these origins was complete BS?

 

The Hell in a Handbasket one is false.

 

I would like to know where the phrase, Push the Envelop comes from, that always pisses me off when people say it.

 

It's an aviator term, means pushing the aircraft to its limits. "Envelope" also has definitions referring to a collection of curves -- advanced mathematical stuff. So to aeronautical engineers the envelope is the collection of curves that describe the maximum performance of the plane. Pushing the envelope is taking the plane to the edge of what it was built for and try to push it even past those limits.

 

Another aviation one:
'The Whole Nine Yards'
In World War 2, a length of a strand of bullets was 9 yards. They would load the strand into the 50 cal guns (such like in the wings of P-51 Mustangs). The pilots would come back after a mission and say 'I gave him the whole nine yards' meaning he shot every bullet he had at the enemy.

 

It's not a saying, but do you know where the 'superstition of crossing your fingers came from?

In Rome, in early Christianity, it was sort of a secret sign between Christians to identify one another.