what does it mean when someone says " Mind your p's and q's" ?

Question

I hear it all of the time and I tried to figure it out but i got nothing.

Answer 1

The more fanciful explanations for "mind your p's and q's" include:

- It originated in British pubs as an abbreviation for "mind your pints and quarts." Supposedly this warned the barkeep to serve full measure, mark the customer's tab accurately, etc.

- It meant "mind your pea (jacket) and queue." Queues (pigtails) were often powdered, and wifeypoo was telling hubby to keep the cruddy kid stuff off his collar. An even dumber variation of this involves "pieds," French for "feet," and says minding your p's and q's means combing your hair and polishing your shoes, or something like that.

- P and q stands for "prime quality." According to the Oxford English Dictionary, to be P and Q was a regional expression meaning top quality. It first shows up in a bit of doggerel from 1612: "Bring in a quart of Maligo, right true: And looke, you Rogue, that it be Pee and Kew."

The simplest explanation is that the expression refers to the difficulty kids have distinguishing lower-case p and q, mirror images of each other. Mind your you-know-whats was thus a teacher's admonition to students. Plausible? Yes. Sexy? No. Such is the fate of a slave to facts.

Answer 2

Oxford English Dict. lists at least three possible origins:
a. British pubs kept count of patrons pints/quarts.
b. Early typesetters were admonished to pay attention to the letters "p & q" since they lookes similar, each having a tail
c. School teachers used the phrase when teaching the alphabet to young students.

These are some of the defintions you will find for "mind your p's and q's" However I think that most today use it to mean mind your own business.....or be on your best behavior.

Answer 3

It means "be careful", "watch out", "take care". It's an old british pub expression, meaning keep an eye on your pints and quarts, 1) as an admonition to not get too drunk and 2) as a suggestion to keep a handle on their own tab since the bartender maintained people's tabs by writing how many p's and q's they had drunk on a blackboard and over the course of the night with repeated writing and erasing, the blackboard could get confusing.

Answer 4

The know the Day website shows this word has more desirable attainable origins than the different -- and no one is acquainted with basically what to trust. the surely ingredient each body can agree upon is that the idiom replaced into first said with the help of the Oxford English Dictionary in 1779 with the that technique of gazing the doorstep and being well mannered. One straightforward rationalization is that that's a infantile abbreviation for minding your "pleases" and "thank yous." thinking how typically little ones are informed to "ideas your playstation and Qs" with the objective of being more desirable well mannered, this rationalization is smart. 2 common theories revolve around the mirror-image high quality of both letters. The word replaced into recorded in 1830 as meaning "to study one's letters." It replaced into geared in route of little ones gaining expertise of at hand-write the lowercase letters p and q, that are truly similar. yet another rationalization alongside an analogous traces comes from the international of printing. Typesetters used blocks of want that were mirror pictures of the letters, so it would want to be straightforward to blend up lowercase p and q. This starting place might want to offer "ideas your playstation and Qs" a connotation of being careful and paying sharp interest. yet another oft-stated source of the word is previous pubs the position beer and ale replaced into served in pints and quarts. The barkeeper tracked consumers' ingesting totals with the help of marking "P" for pints and "Q" for quarts. both the barkeeper and the drinker might want to favor to shop careful song of those playstation and Qs so as that they knew what the perfect invoice might want to be. also, the drinker may favor to pay interest on how a lot he drank with the intention to shop his own habit lower than administration. international huge words notes that this complicated and quirky idiom has inspired some fanciful motives. contained in the 17th century, the expression "P and Q" meant "best high quality," which may have prompted the playstation and Qs word. some propose the declaring got here from a French dancing carry close's training to accomplish the dance figures pieds and queues precise. Or it would want to be an admonishment to sailors to shop their military peacoats sparkling round their tarred queues or pigtails. yet those derivations look fantastically some distance-fetched.

Answer 5

Well, just look at the letters. "p" has the downward line on the left side and "q" has the line on the right side. So, when you "mind your p's and q's" you are making sure you write the letter you meant. It just means to be careful, like making sure you don't dot your t's and cross your i's. Plus, it's easier to say than that.

Answer 6

Comes from Great Britain pubs - mind your pints and quarts.

Answer 7

That saying came from the irish years ago. When they were in the "PUB" they drank from pints & quarts. When anything was happening the bartender would say, mind you pints & quarts, shortening it by saying P's & Q's. Don't spill them

Answer 8

If you are hearing it all the time it means that you aren't doing it!
You are not behaving properly, are being impolite or just just sticking yourself into situations that don't concern you!

Answer 9

Mind your own business.

Answer 10

it meant , mind your Pleases and thank yous, q's is the sound between the k of thank and the you.