what does mind your P's and Q's mean?

Question

my friend and i thought maybe it had to do with manners liek Please and thank you cuz thank you makes a Q sound but we had no idea

holy crap, half of u people are trying to explain what i put in my details, thansk for teh people who either agreed or gave a good answer otherwise

Answer 1

Mind your pints & quarts -- a reference to drinking. In other words -- don't be uncoeuth.

Answer 2

There have been several theories posted on Phrase Finder about "minding your P's and Q's." It is an extremely old expression, centuries old, personally I don't agree with the Please and Thank You theory.

Here are two more theories, there are many others.

To mind your Ps and Qs is to be careful; cautious.

The Ps here are said to be pints and the Qs to be quarts. The publican "chalks up" or "puts on the slate" the drinks supplied to customers; they must be aware of how much they have drunk or their bills will be unexpectedly large.

OR

It is derived from the printing industry as a suggestion to an apprentice to be careful where the danger of confusing lowercase "p" and "q" was increased because typesetters had to view the typeset text backwards.

Answer 3

One simple explanation is that it's a childish abbreviation for minding your "pleases" and "thank yous." Considering how often kids are told to "mind your Ps and Qs" with the goal of being more polite, this explanation makes sense.

Two popular theories revolve around the mirror-image quality of the two letters. The phrase was recorded in 1830 as meaning "to learn one's letters." It was aimed at children learning to hand-write the lowercase letters p and q, which are quite similar. Another explanation along the same lines comes from the world of printing. Typesetters used blocks of type that were mirror images of the letters, so it would be easy to mix up lowercase p and q. This origin would give "mind your Ps and Qs" a connotation of being careful and paying sharp attention.

Another oft-mentioned source of the phrase is old pubs where beer and ale was served in pints and quarts. The barkeeper tracked patrons' drinking totals by marking "P" for pints and "Q" for quarts. Both the barkeeper and the drinker would want to keep careful track of those Ps and Qs so they knew what the final bill would be. Also, the drinker might want to pay attention to how much he drank so as to keep his own behavior under control.

World Wide Words notes that this puzzling and quirky idiom has inspired some fanciful explanations. In the 17th century, the expression "P and Q" meant "prime quality," which might have influenced the Ps and Qs phrase. Some suggest the saying came from a French dancing master's instructions to perform the dance figures pieds and queues properly. Or it could be an admonishment to sailors to keep their navy peacoats clean around their tarred queues or pigtails. But these derivations seem pretty far-fetched.

Answer 4

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."

Answer 5

It means to pay close attention to your behavior.

Possible sources:

"This expression, meaning "be very careful to behave correctly",
has been in use from the 17th century on. Theories include: an
admonishment to children learning to write; an admonishment to
typesetters (who had to look at the letters reversed); an
admonishment to seamen not to soil their navy pea-jackets with
their tarred "queues" (pigtails); "mind your pints and quarts";
"mind your prices and quality"; "mind your pieds and queues"
(either feet and pigtails, or two dancing figures that had to be
accurately performed); the substitution of /p/ for "qu" /kw/ in the
speech of uneducated ancient Romans; or the confusion by students
learning both Latin and Ancient Greek of such cognates as _pente_
and _quintus_. And yes, we've heard the joke about the instruction
to new sextons: "Mind your keys and pews."

The most plausible explanation is the one given in the latest
edition of Collins English Dictionary: an alteration of "Mind
your 'please's and 'thank you's". "

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

Answer 6

The expression is an admonishment to behave correctly. The source is from the British navy. P's was actually pea. A reference to a uniform top called a pea jacket. The Q is actually queue. A term referring to the pony-tail's that sailors wore. Sailor's would dye their pony-tails, and if they weren't careful, the dye (especially in bad weather shortly after it was dyed) would run out and stain their queue.

So originally, Mine your P's and Q's. Was "Mind your peas and queues". And meant "Don't get your uniform dirty with your hair dye."

Answer 7

Hi Sweetie,
That's exactly what it means, to mind r manners! But where P & Q's comes from is beyond I & R's lifetime. Be Good so to speak! The sylables have O to do with Manner's. Maybe someome on Moonshine
made it up wayyyy back & couldn't Spell! ha
Are U minding r P's & Q's?
LOL, Diana D

Answer 8

I have no idea but I thought it had to do with the fact that the lowercase "p" and "q" are the same backwards. Kind of like don't confuse the two or to watch your behavior, something like that.

Answer 9

I means watch what you say. For example: Don't get stupid and start telling all your friends secrets, or your own for that matter..Don't talk more than anyone wants to listen. Be mindful.

Answer 10

I always thought that it meant mind your ears and mouth because P's sort of look like ears and Q's looks like a mouth!
I know it sounds stupid but that is what i think!

Answer 11

to mind your manners THE ONES ABOVE ME ARE WRONG

it was from pubs in ireland a long time ago. People would start to get drunk and get very rowdy. So the bartender would say to them "mind your P's and Q's". Which meant for them to mind their Pints (P's) and Quarts (Q's), or in other words, to mind how much they were drinking.

please dont beleive the people above bacause they have no clue what they are talking about