England’s history is rich and varied, with locations dating back thousands of years, tales of battles, kings, queens, and tyranny.
Life wasn’t always easy for inhabitants of the green and pleasant land we know now, and some of the harsher aspects of life have led to sayings we’ve kept over the years. Some have firm origins in the English Middle Ages, such as our first one, whilst others are disputed. Still, for a bit of fun, let’s run down ten sayings and customs that have roots in days gone by.
1: Don’t Throw The Baby Out With The Bathwater
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 got to bathe. 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!”
2. It’s Raining Cats and Dogs
It always seems to rain in England, but we have houses that can cope these days. However, in olden times, 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 lived in the roof. When it rained, it became slippery, and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, resulting in the saying, “It’s raining cats and dogs”
3. Dirt Poor
Back in the old days, wealth wasn’t measured by cars and clothes; it was measured by your homes. Only the wealthy had something like slate or thresh on the floor – the poor people just had dirt. That led folks to coin the phrase “dirt poor.”
4. Piss Poor / Not a Pot to Piss In
It gets worse for the poor. 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 classed as “piss poor.” 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.
5. Bringing Home the Bacon
We all love bacon, but while it’s common for us to bring it home from Asda when we like, back in the day, it was more of a challenge. Only on rare occasions could a family 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.”
6. Chewing the Fat
This is directly related to the last point. When the bacon was hung, they would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat.”
7. Holding a Wake
This isn’t as much of a saying but more of a custom. Lead cups were used to drink ale or whisky back in the day, and the combination would sometimes knock people out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid on the kitchen table for a couple of days, and the family would gather around to eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up, creating the custom of holding a wake.
8. Saved by the Bell / Dead Ringer / Graveyard Shift
It’s not a double-A side by Meatloaf, but instead three sayings from one custom. To understand, it is important to get a little context. England was considered small, and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and take the bones to a bone house and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, some were found to have scratch marks on the inside 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 be considered a “dead ringer”. This is widely disputed, as a train of thought says saved by the bell is a boxing term, and dead ringer comes from horseracing. Without those, there’s no need for a graveyard shift….
9. Bite The Bullet
During battles, soldiers would often have to undergo surgery without anesthesia. To distract themselves from the pain, they would bite down on a bullet or a piece of wood. The phrase “bite the bullet” thus became synonymous with facing hardship or pain with resilience and stoicism, harking back to the literal act of biting down on a bullet during painful medical procedures on the battlefield.
10. Break The Ice
In the days of maritime trade, ships often navigated through icy waters, which posed a significant obstacle to their movement. To allow ships to pass through, crews would use various methods to break the ice, such as ramming the ship into the ice or using specialized equipment to break it apart. The term “break the ice” eventually became figurative, referring to the act of breaking down barriers or tension in social interactions, just as ships would break through ice barriers in frozen waters.
