The Cold Shoulder
Believe it or not, there was a time when giving someone the cold
shoulder didn?t just mean publicly snubbing them; it actually meant
handing them a cold shoulder, as in a cold shoulder of beef. During
the Middle Ages, the easiest way to hint to guests that they?d
overstayed their welcome was to serve them a heaping mound of cold
cow parts.
Humble Pie
In the 13th century, British families tended to divvy up food after
a hunt by giving the best portions of meat to the man who shot the
stag, his eldest son, and his closest male friends. Those of lesser
importance (the man?s wife and his remaining children, for example)
were graciously offered the umbles?organs like the heart, the
brain, the kidneys, and the entrails. Years later, some punster
added an ?h? to the phrase, and ?to eat humble pie? became
synonymous with any sort of humiliation.
Bring Home the Bacon
What today means coming home with a paycheck used to be a bit more
literal. In the 12th century, the Dunmow Church in Essex County,
Britain, began awarding cured bacon strips to newly married couples
if they could swear after one year of marriage they had never once
regretted the decision. Standards got a little stiffer in the 16th
century when the church turned the event into a competition:
Couples had to appear before a jury of six bachelors and
bachelorettes and plead the magnitude of their happiness in order
to ?bring home the bacon.?
Ham
The common term for someone guilty of overacting is abbreviated
from the slightly longer, slightly more offensive ?hamfatter.?
Low-grade minstrel actors often didn?t have the cash to spring for
cold cream, so they resorted to applying ham fat to their faces to
help remove their stage makeup. The facial application soon became
permanently connected to the actors who wore it.
To Stew in One?s Own Juices
Meaning to suffer the consequences of your own actions, the phrase
goes back to the 13th century when ?stewing in your own juices? was
a euphemism for being burned at the stake.
Pleased as Punch
Believe it or not, the punch in the phrase doesn?t refer to a tasty
beverage, but instead to the main character in the old-time Punch
and Judy puppet shows. A staple at European carnivals, the ?Punch
and Judy? show was madly popular in the days before TV. The
humorous puppet act always ended in a pleased Punch outwitting his
shrewish wife, hence the phrase.
Baker?s Dozen
Bakers of old weren?t exactly the most ethical people. In fact, it
was pretty well known that bakers duped customers regularly by
making loaves of bread that contained more air pockets than solid
material. By 1266 the British Parliament was fed up (or not fed up,
as it were) with the airy substitutes, so they mandated a law that
bread had to be sold by weight. The penalties were pretty extreme.
(A Turkish version of the law stated that bakers were to be nailed
to their shop doors by the ears if they shortchanged a customer.)
Most bakers, however, didn?t have the proper weighing equipment.
Bakers quickly decided that forking over an extra loaf for every
dozen was an easy way to avoid a sentence.
From Mental Floss (Vol. 1, Issue 5). A magazine
built on fun facts (?No U.S. president was an only child?;
?Leave It to Beaver? was the first American television show to
air a flushing toilet?; ??Sukoshi yotte imasu? is how you say ?I?m
drunk? in Japanese?), Mental Floss has a breezy take on
everything from art and politics to science and religion, making it
the perfect pre?cocktail party read. Subscriptions: $21.97/yr. (6
issues) from Box 377, Mt. Morris, IL 61054.
