Derived from one of the worst prisons in England: the Clink Prison. The Clink Prison was the home of some of the most unthinkable tortures in Medieval times.
Category: Life
Life
During the 1500’s, the Spanish coins were not cut in perfectly round shapes. The weight was what mattered, and not shape.
Cheaters would chisel a little bit off of the borders of the coins to later combine to more coins.
These people were called chiselers.
One can still see coins of certain countries that have dimple borders reminiscent of the chiseled coins.
In Medieval times, the peasants sometimes could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man ‘could bring home the bacon.’ They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and “chew the fat.”
It has been pointed out that this is not the right origin for this phrase.
(as stated on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chew_the_fat#Email_hoax)
Chauvin was a soldier in the French Army during Napoleon’s time. He was know as the most nationalistic soldier in the French army.
People began to associate his name with nationalism and patriotism.
The Americans later used the term to describe the snobby French who believed that their country was better than others.
It eventually was perverted to the meaning today.
‘Argy-bargy’ and its slightly older variant ‘argle-bargle’ have been a part of British English since the second half of the 19th century. ‘Argy’ and ‘argle’ evolved in certain English and Scottish dialects as variant forms of ‘argue.’ As far as we can tell, ‘bargy’ and ‘bargle’ never existed as independent words; they only came to life with the compounds as singsong doublings of ‘argy’ and ‘argle.’