2006-06-19 20:59:33 · 4 answers · asked by dottie 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Other - Arts & Humanities
It's a British phrase. Read on...
In Reply to: going like the clappers posted by Pat Melville-Baker on August 16, 2004
From "Old Stone Crosses of the Vale of Clwyd" by Rev Elias Owen,M.A.1886.
Customs in Tremeirchion Parish and other parts of Wales. Shrove Tuesday Customs.
'Most people turned out to beg, or Hel Ynyd, on Shrove Tuesday. They received from the farmers fine flour, milk, lard etc. Eggs were clapped for;-boys went about with two stones as clappers, and when opposite a farm house they clapped away with all their might and received for their pains a gift of eggs,'
That's a plausible alternative to the usual explanation of clappers in bells.
2006-06-19 21:07:09 · answer #1 · answered by magnamamma 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The tongue of bell is a called a clapper, and to ring the bell the clapper has to be banged back for forth rapidly – hence, moving quickly is “going like the clappers”. Plus, in the UK before sirens emergency vehicles (fire engines and ambulances) had bells. This might have supported the notion that to “go like the clappers” is to go very faster.
2006-06-19 21:29:52 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
The only clappers I've heard of are the things inside bells that make them ring. There might be some connection.
2006-06-19 21:02:54 · answer #3 · answered by angelcake 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the thing that makes the dong in bells,so if you imagine how much they go back and forth when a bell is rung vigorously you get the idea
2006-06-20 00:10:15 · answer #4 · answered by hotclaws 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋