kendor said:
So off is 'movement'? Step off the bus? The meat has gone off (movement in the largest meaning of the word).
Versus: Mr Huppeldepup of London
And you wonder why I'm having problems with English?
- Thread starter WoodYouLike
- Start date
So off is 'movement'? Step off the bus? The meat has gone off (movement in the largest meaning of the word).
Versus: Mr Huppeldepup of London
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You're all very kind (and patient) today
And I'm going to tell you about leg-pulling anyway. Only your friends do it.
If you were to be hanged in the town square for stealing a loaf of bread, (before the introduction of the Long Drop) then you might be dangling on the rope for half an hour or more while you slowly suffocated or were strangled by the rope, as your neck might not have been broken and the spinal cord severed.
Your friends would be allowed to approach the scaffold, and grab you by the legs, pulling down so that your neck was broken and you died quickly and with less suffering.
If you were to be hanged in the town square for stealing a loaf of bread, (before the introduction of the Long Drop) then you might be dangling on the rope for half an hour or more while you slowly suffocated or were strangled by the rope, as your neck might not have been broken and the spinal cord severed.
Your friends would be allowed to approach the scaffold, and grab you by the legs, pulling down so that your neck was broken and you died quickly and with less suffering.
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Thanks JohnD
Knew about the practise, but didn't connect leg-pulling with it.
Knew about the practise, but didn't connect leg-pulling with it.
or are you just pulling all our legs? 
Dunno.
But I know where the term "shake a leg" comes from...
But I know where the term "shake a leg" comes from...
In the days of sail (18th/19th century), when a ship was in a port during wartime (quite a frequent situation in those days), sailors were often not allowed shore leave, for fear of desertion, other losses etc.
So they were allowed to bring their wives on board in order to discuss family finances and little Tommy's progress at school.
(As an aside, sometimes the women who came aboard were not actually someone's wife, or at least not the wife of the sailor, but were claimed to be such in order to spare official embarrassment, and this is where the saying about sailors having a wife in every port comes from).
But I digress.
When it was getting near the time for the ship to depart, the "wives" were all supposed to leave, so the petty officers would shout "show a leg" or "shake a leg", the idea being that "wives" legs looked different those of the men, and by inspecting the limbs emerging from the bunks and hammocks, they could tell how many women were on board and ensure that all of them left the ship before it sailed.
So they were allowed to bring their wives on board in order to discuss family finances and little Tommy's progress at school.
(As an aside, sometimes the women who came aboard were not actually someone's wife, or at least not the wife of the sailor, but were claimed to be such in order to spare official embarrassment, and this is where the saying about sailors having a wife in every port comes from).
But I digress.
When it was getting near the time for the ship to depart, the "wives" were all supposed to leave, so the petty officers would shout "show a leg" or "shake a leg", the idea being that "wives" legs looked different those of the men, and by inspecting the limbs emerging from the bunks and hammocks, they could tell how many women were on board and ensure that all of them left the ship before it sailed.
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