Any truth in these origins?

[Le Sanglier]

Don't forget cut and run - if a ship missed high tide they would cut the anchor rather than sit in port

Worth your salt - when salt was an expensive commodity it only went so far down the table, hence if you were valuable to the people you were worth your salt

S.H.I.T. is actually an acronym for ship high in transit, put on the packages of bird poo so they did not get put in the hold ( when wet an explosive gas is released and sailors went down with open flame causing an explosion)

 

Wrong, check an online etymological dictionary.

[s.varty]

The coffin thing is not true, decomposition can cause the timber to on the coffin lid to peel, leaving what looks like scratch marks, so bells were fitted by some.

 

But I'm pretty sure "saved by the bell" comes from boxing.

 

Id agree with you, this was a question on QI recently. the stupid one alan davies said saved by the bell origionated from the days when people were buried alive (by accident). The answer was as you say from boxing.

[treequip]

opps wrong buton

[Mark Bolam]

Agree about the boxing.

 

Is there a single documented case of a 'dead' person ringing the bell and being rescued?

 

Thought not.

 

 

 

Don't get me wrong, I love these old tales.

 

My contribution is a bit more recent, say, late '70s?

 

If you ate a packet of crackly 'Space Dust', then drank a can of Coke or Pepsi you would explode.

 

Fact.

[skyhuck]

Sailors ate their food off square wooden trays, not round plates, hence the phrase "three square meals".

 

The raised edge of the tray was called the "fiddle", if your tray was over filled. because you were in cahoots with the person serving the food you were said to be "on the fiddle"

[Graham]

One that was going round at school: If you ate Parma violet sweets the smell would render girls helpless to your advances:001_smile: Never seen so many 15 yo lads eating them! Needless to say it didn't work.

[brassmonkey001]

Don't forget cut and run - if a ship missed high tide they would cut the anchor rather than sit in port

Worth your salt - when salt was an expensive commodity it only went so far down the table, hence if you were valuable to the people you were worth your salt

S.H.I.T. is actually an acronym for ship high in transit, put on the packages of bird poo so they did not get put in the hold ( when wet an explosive gas is released and sailors went down with open flame causing an explosion)

 

And why exactly did they send bird **** by boat? Were there no birds overseas in olden times who could provide the necessary? And what exactly did they need bird **** for anyway?

 

You've not thought it through, have you?

[skyhuck]

And why exactly did they send bird **** by boat? Were there no birds overseas in olden times who could provide the necessary? And what exactly did they need bird **** for anyway?

 

You've not thought it through, have you?

 

Guano (bird Pooh) is the finest fertilizer known to man, its worth a fortune.

 

Islands with sea bird colonies on them were mined for the guano that had built up over the years and people made vast abouts from this.

 

I not sure its were the sh1t got its name through.

[Graham]

[/b]

 

Wrong, check an online etymological dictionary.

 

Sh1t

 

Old English scitte ‘diarrhoea’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch schijten, German scheissen (verb). The term was originally neutral and used without vulgar connotation

 

 

Cos' I had nothing better to do:001_smile: From the OED:

[Fungus]

Sh1t Old English scitte ‘diarrhoea’, of Germanic origin; related to Dutch schijten, German scheissen (verb). The term was originally neutral and used without vulgar connotation

 

Graham,

Correct, and in German Honey Fungus (Armillaria) is Hallimasch, which was derived from "Heil im Arsch", meaning "benificial for one's arse", because of the laxative effect after consuming them.