Some Peculiar Origins.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 51, 19 December 1901, Page 29

Some Peculiar Origins.

THE story of the origin of the word ' eaves-droppers ' is very curious. About two centuries ago there was a certain very powerful secret society which would allow no outsider to hear or see what went on at its meetings. There were some people in those days, just as there are now who spent much of their time prying into other persons' affairs, and they tried in all sorts of ways to discover what the society was doing. They kept on trying until several of them were caught and punished, and that put an end to their prowlings around and listening at knot-holes or chinks of the wall ; for when a man was caught at this trick he was condemned to be suspended for a short time under the eves of a shed while it was raining hard, until the water ran in under his collar and out of his shoes ; and from that day until this a -prying person has been called an ' caves-dropper.'

The expression ' topsy-turvy ' also originated in an odd way. When turf is used for fuel it is laid out to dry •with the right side down. Thus arose the phrase ' top-side turf-side,' pronounced ' topsy-turvey,' and meaning ' upside down.' The expression ' putting one's foot in it ' is by no means elegant, but so expressive that sometimes nothing else can tnk t o its place It has an amusing historical origin. When the title to land is disputed in Hindostan two holes are dug in the ground, and one leg of each of the lawyers of the rival claimants is buried therein. In this awkward position the dusky legal champions fall to arguing, and the one who tires first loses his client's case. Thus in a very humiliating sense both the losing litigant and the defeated lawyer have ' put a foot in it.'