I wish I had done a Google search on it before answering off the top of my
head. There are tons of references to the phrase....like this one:
http://www.quinion.com/words/articles/psandqs.htm and they indicate
numerous possible meanings.
Ray
At 09:49 AM 11/21/2003 -0800, Thomas E. Bryant wrote:
>Ray,
>
>Your answer isn't as entertaining as the previous, but likely more on
>target. It has always been of interest to me where these often used
>phrases originate. Any other ideas?
>
>Tom, Redding CA - #216 D/CC
>
>Ray Buck wrote:
>
>>At 11:09 PM 11/20/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>>
>>>In a message dated 11/20/03 8:46:17 PM Eastern Standard Time, kturk@ala.net
>>>writes:
>>>
>>>
>>>>Thought I'd poke my head in bout this point and say thanks to all of you
>>>>for
>>>>your exceptionally gential behavior of late.... ( in other words your doing
>>>>good minding your P's and Q's...)( and that could be the trivia question of
>>>>the week... what the heck is a P or Q? )
>>>
>>>P&Q's are pints & quarts, two sizes of beer mugs used in England. when a bar
>>>fight started you were told to "Mind your P's & Q's!" Bob in connecticut
>>
>>I've heard a completely different answer to that. (My grandfather told
>>me, about 45 years ago) It refers to moveable type as used in newspaper
>>printing before typesetting machines. When viewed head-on the reversed
>>images were very easy to get confused...so it was fairly easy for a
>>young, inattentive typesetter to set up a rack of type that resulted in
>>something like, "Mind your qints and puarts." Hence the admonishment to
>>mind them (or keep them straight...or reversed...or something) while
>>putting the type into place.
>>Ray
|