Take a break: Where phrases start

[mfcorey1]

http://theriflebird.com/people/have-you-ever-heard-the-term-piss-poor-i-had-no-idea-it-comes-from-this-fascinating/

They used to use urine to tan animal skins, so families used to all pee in a pot. 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 folks who couldn’t even afford to buy a pot. They “didn’t have a pot to piss in” and were considered the lowest of the low.

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!”

[elleng]

1. LOVE it!

[skylucy]

2. Great post! Thanks for adding some fun to DU today!

[TlalocW]

3. My favorite is not so much a phrase but just one word and is kind of modern

But it has kind of fallen out of popular usage, and that's calling someone a nimrod to call them a dummy.

And who do we have to thank for this? Bugs Bunny.

In the Bible, Nimrod is a mighty hunter so in one of the cartoons where Bugs is dealing with Elmer Fudd, he says, "Get a load of this Nimrod." People, being as Biblically-illiterate back then as they are now, didn't get the reference, and it became an insult on people's intelligence.

At least that's one explanation. I've seen etymology sites that call this explanation amateurish but don't offer up anything different.

TlalocW