Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 8:07 am Post subject: Pulling my leg
As I was thinking on a story this morning, I got to thinking on this expression. I have NO idea if it was said in RM or not - one of those phrases you hear and never really think about - but I always wondered about this.
To pull one's leg means to try to convince them something is true when it's not...Does anyone know where this phrase originated? Why is it pulling your LEG??? _________________ Michelle
Be thankful for all you have - don't regret what you can't have.
Two suggestions of where the expression comes from:
Quote:
It's usually said that the term arose in the 1880s in Britain, since the first known reference appeared in W B Churchward's Blackbirding in that year: Then I shall be able to pull the leg of that chap Mike. He is always trying to do me in. But Jonathan Lighter, in the Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, has found an example from 1821, suggesting that it might both be much older and also known in America as well as Britain (although American sources usually suggest that it is indeed British in origin). There’s also a Scots version to draw the leg that might indicate its homeland is north of the border.
Quote:
It has a criminal background, and those that used to steal from people in crime ridden London in the olden days... they used to literally have wires to trip people up which pulled on their leg, then someone else took their valuables whilst they were feeling rather compromised on the floor.
Over time this stumbling, mishap and the comical effect of someone falling over came to be adapted slightly to making fun of someone in general, and hence the origin of the phrase.
_________________ PJH
Last edited by PJH on Mon Nov 09, 2009 11:54 am; edited 1 time in total
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