What does minding you P's & Q's really mean.?

Question

Anyone I ask always says "My parents used to use that expression alot, but I have no idea what it means." I'm reaqlly curious !

Answer 1

Everyone seems to be repeating the theories of where this expression CAME from, but not what it means when we use it.

So first -- it means:

"be very careful how you behave, be sure to behave correctly"

Now there are MANY theories of how the expression came to be. Perhaps the two most common are:
1) "pints and quarts" when serving at a bar
2) the lower case letters p and q -- warning for typesetters to be careful not to reverse these two letters (easy to do since type is set backwards)

The link below lists these and others. The one it prefers is the explanation Collins Dictionary, that it is an altered form of

"Mind your 'please's and 'thank you's".

(Very attractive notion. It fits the MEANING of the final expression, and you can even hear where the "p's and q's" version came from.)

http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifmindyourpsandqs.shtml

Only problem is that there is no documented evidence for this. (I've always liked the typesetting solution -- it seems extremely convenient that p's and q's would be mirror images.)

Answer 2

Thats a good puestion I guess I've never given it much thought ,It's qosible that some qeaqle might beleave it has something to do being puite qroqer, and it could be , but I would only be guessing

Answer 3

it means minding your Pints and Quarts

Comes from an old english bar term used to tell people when they were walking out to mind thier pints and quarts

Answer 4

Actually, "mind your P's and Q's" comes English pubs, whenever customers were drinking too many Pints and Quarts of beer, the barman would remind them to "mind your pints and quarts" so that they only drank as many as they had enough money for.

Answer 5

It means Pints and Quarts. In England, people used to drink their drinks in pint and quart cups. When something would happen, like a fight, someone would yell, "Mind your Ps and Qs!" as a warning to protect your drinks.

Answer 6

It just sort of means minding your manners, being mindful of what you do and say. I don't know what the P or the Q stands for, lol...I'm sure we could come up with something. Polite? But you got me on the "Q"......ah....quiet? Like that.

Answer 7

I believe the origin is from hand writing. It is to be mindful of what you are doing (make sure people reading what you have written can tell the difference between your P's and Q's, which in lower case look similar).

Answer 8

I have always heard this, too. The best I can do is PEACE for "P" and QUIET for "Q". Really, my interpretation is to behave yourself. I think this is/was mainly used when talking with children.

Answer 9

it comes from an old bar term. Pints and quarts