Where did the phrase "its all gone to pot" originate from?

Answer 1

Worn wagon tyres would be cut to make horseshoes, worn horseshoes were drawn into rods to make nails, pulled nails were tossed in a pot (that's where the expression "gone to pot" came from btw) and sent to a mill where all the bits of scrap were welded into a big bar which was then used to make new wagon tyres.......

Answer 2

Pot: To take pot luck is to be offered a choice from what's available and not from what you might wish. It goes back to the days when a cooking pot was always on the fire. An unexpected guest was welcome to eat but only from what was on offer in the pot. To take a pot shot has the same basis - to shoot at game in general in order to get something for the pot rather shooting at a specific type of animal.
If someone has gone to pot then they are thought to have deteriorated or declined from their previous status. The pot here is the melting pot into which valuable pieces of stolen silver and gold were remelted. They had gone to pot never to re-appear again. In spite of this probable origin, it is quite possible to relate the saying to the cooking pot described above. Who knows?

: Around 1542, when the phrase first appeared, "to go to pot" was to be cut up like chunks of meat destined for the stew pot. Such a stew was usually the last stop for the remnants of a once substantial cut of meat or poultry, so "going to pot" made perfect sense as a metaphor for anything, from a national economy to a marriage, that had seen better days. Early uses of the metaphor were usually in the form "go to the pot."

Answer 3

Around 1542, when the phrase first appeared, "to go to pot" was to be cut up like chunks of meat destined for the stew pot. Such a stew was usually the last stop for the remnants of a once substantial cut of meat or poultry, so "going to pot" made perfect sense as a metaphor for anything, from a national economy to a marriage, that had seen better days. Early uses of the metaphor were usually in the form "go to the pot."

Answer 4

In the Bronze Age a European chieftain's greatest possession was a large cauldron in which a constant supply of food was perpetually stewing and by which his family, retainers, friends and visitors were sustained. His status was measured by the size and contents of his cauldron. This is the origin of those fables about the magic porridge pot, the cornucopia etc that provided a never-ending supply of food.

There was almost certainly a Neolithic version of the same thing made from ceramic and later in the Iron-age and beyond into the mediaeval period the iron cauldron usually referred to as a cooking pot was the essential kitchen item of any reputable household. Every piece of spare food, rather than be wasted would 'go to the pot' and increase the richness of its contents.

All this, of course, has nothing to do with 'going to pot', which is as explained elsewhere about oddments of scrap iron saved in a pot for later resmelting.

Answer 5

from the pot smokers

Answer 6

Africa man