Idioms- how some started

Sometimes an idiom seems like a cliche, with vague meanings. The history behind many of them are rather funny and many of them make more sense once you know how they were started.

"Who let the cat out of the bag?"
Its origins are from street markets from medieval times. Chickens or pigs were sold tied up in a bag. But often, dishonest sellers would substitute cats for the chickens and pigs. If a customer opened the bag before the transaction was settled, they would realize that they had been cheated and the secret would be known.

"Sleep tight"
Bed frames used to be made from ropes. The ropes would get loose and made sleeping very uncomfortable. The ropes would have to be tightened each night in order to sleep well. So came about the saying to 'sleep tight.'

"Rule of thumb"
This dates back to the old English measurement system which used parts of the body for units of measure.
Another theory of its background is an Old English law which stated that a husband could beat his wife, but not with anything thicker than his thumb.

"Dressed to the Nines"
Common lore has it that a tailor making a high quality suit uses more fabric. The best suits are made from nine yards of fabric. This may seem like a lot but a proper suit does indeed take nine yards of fabric. This is because a good suit has all the fabric cut in the same direction with the warp, or long strands of thread, parallel with the vertical line of the suit. This causes a great amount of waste in suit making, but if you want to go "dressed to the nines", you must pay for such waste.

"Bridal bouquets"
In the 1500's most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May, and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying "a bouquet" when getting married.

"Don't throw the baby out with the Bath water".
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.

"Holding a Wake"
Lead cups were used to drink ale or whiskey. 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".

"Saved by the Bell"
England is a small island and the local people 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".

So there ya go!!

Who said history was boring?

I collected these from around the web. But here's a nice site to look up the origins of idioms

American Idioms