SAYINGS, RHYMES AND MORE

Today I have been browsing the net, trying to find out origins of famous sayings, and this is what I found.

I love learning about how words came about. Rhymes and sayings interest me.

Mind you’re P’s and Q’s

The contextual meaning of this phrase is "mind your manners," i.e. be on your best behaviour. It is an imperative for politeness, etiquette, and social propriety. (For instance, "We're going to have dinner at the Palace, so be on your best behaviour. Mind your p's and q's.")

Unfortunately, the origin of this phrase has not been proven so far. However, there are many proposed origins. Often, a proposed origin will include a detailed historical background to lend it more plausibility. The two most popular explanations are as follows:

The most contextually accurate explanation for the phrase is as follows:

• The phrase is a phonetic abbreviation of "mind your pleases and thank you’d." Because saying "please" and "thank you" are at the core of basic social etiquette, the phrase was commonly used      to remind someone to be mindful of etiquette and politeness in a social situation.
  Many people have difficulty with this last explanation because phonetic abbreviation is not as obvious as direct reference, so it's difficult to see where the "q" comes from. Seen phonetically, "Thank you's" would be written "thang q's", such that "please's and thank you's" shortens phonetically to "p's and q's."

Another explanation is from the French court, where courtiers were told when entering court and bowing to the King to "Mind their feet (pieds) and wig (queues)". The feet as their sheath may entangle as they bow, and their wigs might become dislodged... Watch how they bow in costume drama.

Have you heard of the game, “Blind man’s bluff?

A game, in which a blindfolded player tries to catch others.

 

Blind man's buff has been one of the most popular of children's games for centuries. In the most commonly known version one player is blindfolded (or hooded in some countries) and, after being turned around a few times for disorientation, has to catch one of the others. The blindfolded player is usually taunted, struck and poked with sticks, for the general amusement.

There are records of a variation of it being played in pre-Christian Greece and almost every country has a form of it. In Europe alone we find:

Italy - Mosca cieca (blind fly).
Germany - Blindekuh (blind cow)
Sweden - Blindbock (blind buck)
Spain - Gallina ciega (blind hen)
France - Colin-maillard (a name deriving from Jean Colin-Maillard, a warrior who had his eyes gouged out during a battle, but continued to fight, striking at random around him)

Even in Victorian England, where the game was especially popular, both in the playground and as a parlour game for adults, the name wasn't settled on. In addition to 'Blind man's buff' it was variously called 'Hoodwink blind', 'Blind man's buffet' and 'Blind man's bluff'.

The 'bluff' version of the name is the result of a mishearing and possibly also the alliteration with 'blind'. The 'buffet' version seems odd too, as the game has nothing to do with offering party food to the sightless, but that is in fact the correct name of the game. To 'buffet' is to strike or to push, as is done in the game. The word 'buffet' isn't widely used with that meaning any longer, although 'buffeting' is still called into use whenever umbrellas or awnings are blown about in gales.

The game was often played at Christmas and the English diarist Samuel Pepys referred to his wife playing the game in his diary entry for Monday 26th December 1664:

...and so home to bed, where my people and wife innocently at cards very merry, and I to bed, leaving them to their sport and blindman’s buff.

I remember at our boarding school, when I was young, our parties at Christmas, we used to play the game, now keep in mind our school, was for the blind? Slightly sick some would say/think? Not as distasteful, as the songs we used to sing on our trips back from a field day with our class? One song used to say

“I, have no sight, I cannot see. I have not brought my specs with me. Specs= spectacles.

I, naively used to love the game, but as a child, my Husband would not play it.

 All old rhymes, have a rather dark origin?

The children’s nursery rhyme

Ring a ring o roses. A pocketful of posies. Atishoo, atishoo, we all fall down.

It is often suggested that the rhyme relates to the symptoms of plague, specifically the Black Death - the bubonic plague that spread through Europe in the 1340s, or to the Great Plague of London, 1665/6. The plausible-sounding theory has it that the 'ring' was the ring of sores around the mouths of plague victims, who subsequently sneezed and fell down dead.

I’m not too convinced though of this particular theory, as logged versions of this rhyme, came many years after the plague. Why not earlier, for example, shortly after the plague?

Another children’s rhyme, is

Georgie Porgie, Puddin' and Pie,

Kissed the girls and made them cry,

When the boys came out to play

Georgie Porgie ran away.

There are various theories that link the character Georgie Porgie to historical figures including George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham (1592-1628), Charles II (1630-1685) and George I (1660-1727), but there is no evidence to corroborate such claims.

Another English rhyme, is

Goosey Goosey Gander where shall I wander,
Upstairs, downstairs and in my lady's chamber
There I met an old man who wouldn't say his prayers,
I took him by the left leg and threw him down the stairs.  

Goosey Goosey Gander is a Rhyme with Historical undertones - an attention grabber for a nursery rhyme which uses alliteration in the lyrics designed to intrigue any child. The 'lady's chamber' was a room that once upon a time a high born lady would have her own chamber, (also referred to as a solar). The origins of the nursery rhyme are believed to date back to the 16th century and refer to necessity for Catholic priests to hide in 'Priest Holes' (very small secret rooms once found in many great houses in England) to avoid persecution from zealous Protestants who were totally against the old Catholic religion. If caught both the priest and members of any family found harbouring them were executed. The moral in Goosey Goosey Gander's lyrics imply that something unpleasant would surely happen to anyone failing to say their prayers correctly - meaning the Protestant Prayers, said in English as opposed to Catholic prayers which were said in Latin!

The origin to the words of "The grand old Duke of York" are believed to date back to the Plantagenet dynasty in the 15th century and refer mockingly to the defeat of Richard, "The grand old Duke of York" in the Wars of the Roses (1455). This war was between the house of York (whose symbol was a white rose) and the house of Lancaster (whose symbol was a red rose). The Wars of the Roses lasted for over thirty years and were equivalent to a Civil War. Origins of the Rhyme The words of the Nursery rhyme are believed to refer to Richard, Duke of York, claimant to the English throne and Protector of England and the Battle of Wakefield on December 30, 1460. The Duke of York and his army marched to his castle at Sandal where Richard took up a defensive position against the Lancastrian army. Sandal Castle was built on top of the site of an old Norman motte and bailey fortress. Its massive earthworks stood 33 feet (10m) above the original ground level ("he marched them up to the top of the hill"). In a moment of madness he left his stronghold in the castle and went down to make a direct attack on the Lancastrians “he marched them down again". His army was overwhelmed and Richard the Duke of York was killed.