LUFCTALK

Davycc wrote:or my favourite, giving the 2 fingers sign is apparently connected to the long bow archers of medieval times. These archers took years to master the bow not just in skill but in strength. So when an archer was caught he'd have his first two finger cut off rendering him useless as an bowman. Therefore when in battle the bowmen would raise their 2 fingers to the enemy to show they had never been caught and suffered such punishment.

Don't want to ruin your favourite phrase davy, but the tale of the Agincourt/longbowman origin of the two-finger gesture is generally thought to be just a myth, propagated for its romantic quality. So Stephen Fry told me on QI anyway. I'd believed it since I was first told it at school by a teacher, but a couple of years ago saw that on tv and looked it up a bit. Though it can't be definitively disproved, it seems unlikely.

A monkey was a brass stowage for cannonballs onboard Navy warships, to freeze the balls on a brass monkey meant that it was cold enough for the ice to stick the cannonballs to the monkey.

We should start a pub quiz team

rigger wrote:You don't get this level of discussion on any other football site, do you ??

We're so highbrow !

Ahem, I believe I have started a VERY high brow discussion.

The term screws for prison officers dates back to victorian times and child labour, when children were sent to the workhouse some had to stand on a huge wheel(similar to a water wheel) and use force to turn the wheel to grind corn or such like. The workhouse guards were stood at the side of the wheel and as the bolts became loose with the constant turning they had to turn the screws to tighten them to prevent the wheel from coming off its axel. Hence the term screws. Also at the same time old ships rigging was brought to the workhouses and the kids were made to separate each strand and then re-weave it into new rope which was then sold on hence the expression money for old rope.

"stupid person-up" isn't just a crude way of saying summat's gone wrong, like balls-up; it actually refers to one of the feathers on a drawn arrow - called the stupid person feather - which was meant to be pointing downwards in order for the arrow to loose and fly properly. Therefore it was all going to go a bit wrong if there was a 'stupid person-up'.

'Brand spanking new' refers to doctors spanking a new born baby to make it breathe. A better one is 'daylight robbery' which originated when some councils or mayors or whoever began charging a window tax - the more windows on your building, the more tax you paid

It's all above board and Bed and board
before tables became a common house hold piece furniture when it was time to eat a couple of boards stored in a room were placed across stands. and the food placed on them. If there was any business done ie with money etc everyone kept their .hands above the boards so there was no cheating. Also if you stayed at an inn you payed for your bed and a place at the board for something to eat.

Why do we doss down when we go to bed?

In times gone by people never laid in bed but slept in a sitting position, what we now call a headboard was known as a doss & this was used to rest your back against. You will see homeless people under bridges sleeping in a sitting position with their backs against a wall, hence the term "dossers"

When you go into a restaurant you tend to leave a tip. The word tip originated from Edwardian coffee houses that had a box on the table with the acronym T.I.P.S. and once the customer put a coin into the box the waiter would come to your table and serve you. The acronym stood for To Insure Prompt Service.