2007-02-27 05:42:00 · 14 answers · asked by janember819 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Words & Wordplay
OK, Christie was right on! It was a way of pub bartenders to keep their patrons from getting to rowdy and/or starting arguments and fights. the pub bartenders knew that the more that some of the patrons drank, the more belligerent some of them would become. And because they served drinks in pints and quarts, it was a way of telling them to "slow down" and watch their intake or else they'd get thrown out on their butts! So they'd tell them to "mind your p's and q's!"
2007-02-27 05:57:50 · answer #1 · answered by Chiky 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pints and quarts. It's a phrase that comes from bars. The bartender once kept tabs on how many drinks each person drank through out the night on a chalk board and would than charge them at the end of the night.
2007-02-27 05:50:35 · answer #2 · answered by All 4 His Glory 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
These are some of the explanations I’ve seen advanced in various places:
Advice to a child learning its letters to be careful not to mix up the handwritten lower-case letters p and q.
Similar advice to a printer’s apprentice, for whom the backward-facing metal type letters would be especially confusing.
Jocular, or perhaps deadly serious, advice to a barman not to confuse the letters p and q on the tally slate, on which the letters stood for the pints and quarts consumed “on tick” by the patrons.
An abbreviation of mind your please’s and thank-you’s.
Instructions from a French dancing master to be sure to perform the dance figures pieds and queues accurately.
An admonishment to seamen not to soil their navy pea-jackets with their tarred queues, that is, their pigtails.
2007-02-27 05:45:40 · answer #3 · answered by Rachael H 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It stands for pints and quarts, when alcohol in bars used to be measured this way on like a chalk board. They used to say mind how much you consume because, the waitress or bartender might chalk up a quart, when you really ordered a pint.
2007-02-27 05:45:11 · answer #4 · answered by Chris 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
mind one's p's and q's
Practice good manners, be precise and careful in one's behavior and speech, as in Their grandmother often told the children to mind their p's and q's. The origin of this expression, first recorded in 1779, is disputed. Among the more interesting theories advanced is that bartenders kept track of customers' consumption in terms of pints (p's) and quarts (q's) and the phrase referred to an honest accounting; that schoolchildren were taught to be careful in distinguishing the letters p and q; and that French dancing masters cautioned pupils about the correct performance of the figures pieds and queues (either abbreviated or mispronounced in English as p's and q's).
2007-02-27 05:47:41 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
P’s n Q’s: it actually means, Mind your Pints and Quarts. In Pubs when people would start arguing, the bartenders would tell them to mind their own drinks... being pints n quarts!
2007-02-27 05:45:09 · answer #6 · answered by Christie G 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Rachel H is probably the most correct. Not very well cited but that's to be expected here. Both sites I have given are very informative and give similar information.
Also both sites seem to agree that it is most likely just a saying to remind children to not mix up the lowercase letters "p" and "q."
2007-02-27 05:57:25 · answer #7 · answered by Nathan H 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Pints and Quarts
2007-02-27 05:45:02 · answer #8 · answered by KJ480 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Pints and Quarts.
I heard it was started by bartenders in Pubs in order to settle down their drunk patrons.
2007-02-27 05:45:57 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is the manner is which you are told to act. In a proper manner or order.. As the P comes before the Q in the proper manner or order.
2007-02-27 05:57:34 · answer #10 · answered by ruth4526 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋