[BITList] Where did "piss poor" come from?

[M & E. HENDERSON.]

   I cannot guarantee that every one of these sayings are correct but my 2
uncles always told me so.

  Regards.  Malcolm.

 

 


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 a day 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 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 odour. 
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."

(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."




 


 

 



 





 

 

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