Why do we "mind our p's and q's"? | | You may understand the implied warning in "mind your p's and q's," but do you know what those letters stand for? | |  | Bennett Kleinman |
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| |  | | A nyone who "minds their p's and q's" is known for acting on their best behavior, but what do those two letters stand for? Polite and quiet? Proper and quaint? Peas and uh… qarrots? We won't take liberties with the spelling of "carrots," and we can further confirm that none of those options is correct. However, there are a few origin stories for this perfectly quirky turn of phrase.
The Oxford English Dictionary records examples of these letters in print as early as 1602, though "p's and q's" were sometimes written as "Pee and Kue." "To be on one's p's and q's" and variants of that phrase meant to be on one's best behavior. The exact wording of "mind your p's and q's" was first documented in the 1756 book The Life & Memoirs of Ephraim Tristram Bates.
While lexicographers and dictionaries can trace the printed citations and usages of words and phrases, they often don't reveal how these phrases originally came to be. With "p's and q's," there are several possible origin stories, but none rises above the rest. It's possibly related to the similarity of the appearance of "p" and "q" in penmanship and a warning to avoid mixing them up; a similar story is related to printers mixing up the letters when typesetting. A completely different theory is based on the idea that bartenders used to keep running tabs of the number of pints and quarts drunk by their patrons (or told the patrons to "mind their own p's and q's"). A fourth and final purported origin story is that "p's and q's" translates to "pleases and thank-yous," as the latter part of "thank-you" sounds like the letter "Q."
While all of these theories relate in some way to the idea of good and orderly behavior, each is dubious in its own way. We may never know the true origin of this early 17th-century phrase, so feel free to come up with a fun origin story of your own for "p's and q's." |
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Emoji Decoded | |  | | Construction Worker | | | Meaning: Shows a person wearing a hard hat or construction helmet, representing construction workers, building projects, or ongoing work/maintenance.
Evolution: It was originally released in 2015 as a male worker, but now includes gender variations (👷♂️ and 👷♀️) and skin tone options. It's widely used to indicate both literal construction work and metaphorical "work in progress" situations.
Usage: [Caption on a home renovation TikTok:] DIY weekend mode activated 👷♀️🔨 |
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| | Construction Worker | | | Meaning: Shows a person wearing a hard hat or construction helmet, representing construction workers, building projects, or ongoing work/maintenance.
Evolution: It was originally released in 2015 as a male worker, but now includes gender variations (👷♂️ and 👷♀️) and skin tone options. It's widely used to indicate both literal construction work and metaphorical "work in progress" situations.
Usage: [Caption on a home renovation TikTok:] DIY weekend mode activated 👷♀️🔨 |
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Have you read? | |  | | One Hundred Years of Solitude | | By Gabriel García Márquez | | Just pick it up; trust me. This literary masterpiece spans seven generations of the Buendía family, exploring the cyclical nature of time and culture. Márquez crafted the blueprint for magical realism with this book — he has been praised for opening the literary canon to new forms and styles by bringing the genre to Western readers. This was published almost 20 years before "Love in the Time of Cholera," and I recommend it if you're going to read only one of Marquez's books. | | | | Jennifer A. Freeman, Word Smarts Senior Editor | | | | We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. |
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| | One Hundred Years of Solitude | | By Gabriel García Márquez | | Just pick it up; trust me. This literary masterpiece spans seven generations of the Buendía family, exploring the cyclical nature of time and culture. Márquez crafted the blueprint for magical realism with this book — he has been praised for opening the literary canon to new forms and styles by bringing the genre to Western readers. This was published almost 20 years before "Love in the Time of Cholera," and I recommend it if you're going to read only one of Marquez's books. | | | | Jennifer A. Freeman, Word Smarts Senior Editor | | | | We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. |
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