I LOVE to examine wise old sayings and proverbs, especially to discover their origin.
They can give a great insight into life as it was in years gone by and how people reacted to the world they lived in and how they saw it.
An example of this is the saying ‘that man is worth his salt’. Now where would you think that phrase came from?
You might well believe that money was transacted for work done since time began, but that is not the case. The old form of payment was ‘The barter system’ whereby one good was transacted as a form of payment for another good (or work done!).
The origin of modern coinage dates back to about 700 B.C and was brought into popular use by the Romans. Prior to that the Romans used to pay wages by means of transacting ‘salt’ as this was a very effective way of preserving food. So that is the origin of the above saying and in fact is origin of where the word ‘salary’ came from.
Another one I like is the origin of the phrase ‘Daylight robbery’.
Back in the penal times in Ireland, extra taxes had to be paid if you had larger windows in your house (a bit like the water charges now!).
The more light you left into your house, the more tax you paid. It is interesting to examine the old famine houses around the country and to see how small the windows were.
In fact some people used to paint windows onto the house to give the ‘appearance of wealth’ without having to pay the taxes. You see tax avoidance was evident even in the olden days.
The phrase – ‘it’s raining cats and dogs’ is another interesting one. In bygone years the animal use to make their way up to the loft of the houses for comfort.
The reason is that the heat rose in the house and many of the roofs and lofts were made of straw and thatch for extra comfort. When excessive rain fell and the thatch was old the animals were in danger of falling down on top of the heads of the poor misfortunes seated in the parlour below, thus the term ‘It’s raining…’
The term ‘saved by the bell’ has a more sinister reason to its origin.
Back around the times of The Black Death (1348 – 1350) people had a morbid but real fear of being buried alive as perhaps they didn’t have the means of testing as they do now.
A system was developed whereby a pulley rope was attached into the coffin and connected to a bell over ground and a night-watchman was commissioned to keep an ear out for any strange sounding noises – thus the catchphrase – Saved by…!
Some other sayings I like that I heard recently are’
‘The day you’re wed and the day you’re dead are the two days that you’re pedigree are read!’
‘Man made money but money never made a man!’
‘If you don’t have profit you’ll have knowledge’
‘My mother left me with a great saying – ‘The two most important things in life are your shoes and your bed because if you’re not in one you’re in the other.’
My father left me with a saying about business (remember he was a publican!) – ‘Count the barrels in front of your own place and don’t be looking at the barrels everywhere else’ – In other words mind your own business!
I also like the following advice from businessman Fergal Quinn -‘ The customer isn’t always right but it never pays to let him know it’
Should you have any interesting origins or phrases of interest I would be delighted if you contacted me on the email below as next week I am going to write about – ‘More wise old sayings !’
• Roger Harty is a life coach and can be contacted on 087-6128336, on twitter at @Innerjoyz1 or by email rogharty@gmail.com
