What Does Mind Your P's and Q's Mean

There is some disagreement amongst grammarians about how to spell Ps and Qs - either upper-case or lower-case and either with or without an apostrophe. What does the English mind your Ps and Qs mean.

This Expression Means That You Should Be On Your Best Behavior Be Good Words Mindfulness Idioms

Nobody knows where we get the phrase Mind your ps and qs.

. 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. Definition of ps and qs. Many bars and pubs traditionally kept track of customer tabs on a large slate board adding up the Ps and Qs at the end of the night.

The expression to mind your Ps and Qs means to be careful or cautious. Mind your Ps and Qs can mean to be careful vigilant or more often polite. The Ps in the expression to mind your Ps and Qs refer to the pints and the Qs in the expression to mind your Ps and Qs are said to be the quarts.

An even dumber variation of this involves pieds French for feet and says minding your ps and qs means combing your hair and polishing your shoes or something like that. A time of frequent bar fights. Ps sounds a bit like please qs sounds a.

The bartender may have yelled to everyone to mind their pints and quarts during a brawl to avoid spilling their drinks. You may see the phrase as mind your ps and qs or mind your Ps and Qs or mind your Ps and Qs or less. Mind your Ps and Qs is theorized to relate to the number of pints and quarts served at bars.

Be sure to mind your ps and qs when you visit your aunt this weekend. This axiom regardless of its origins has been common in post-victorian Britain as an abbreviation of to mind your manners or more specifically to say both please ps and thankyou thank-Q. While the exact origin remains unknown the phrase may have come from old English pubs.

Probably the most widely held explanation also happens to be the most straightforward. There are several suggested origins for the phrase which often differ from the way it is now used. The phrase appears in the mid eighteenth century.

Mind your Ps and Qs means to use good manners. What does the idiom mind your PS andQs mean. Something such as ones manners that one should be mindful of better watch his ps and qs when I get a six-gun of my own Jean Stafford.

Mind your Ps and Qs means mind your behavior - be on your best behavior - mind your manners in modern parlance. The Basic Politeness Theory. The origin is not known for certain but the most plausible explanation is that it comes from teaching reading and writing in that children often have difficulty distinguishing the.

What does P and Q stand for in mind your Ps and Qs. We would like to show you a description here but the site wont allow us. Ps sounds a bit like please qs sounds a bit like thank yous so to mind your ps and qs ultimately means to mind your good mannersIts a neat idea but its not a particularly.

Ps and Qs. In the 17th century the letters stood for. Be on your best behaviour.

For example a mother might mention that Aunt Gertrude is a stickler for manners and the children had better mind their Ps and Qs when she visits. The phrase appears in the mid eighteenth century. Probably the most widely held explanation also happens to be the most straightforward.

To be polite and well behaved. Be careful of your language. It would refer to the care a young student must take in differentiating the tailed letters p and q.

The letter b and d are also the same in that viewed in reverse they can be confused. Ive heard people say that it means mind your pleases and your thank yous as something an adult would say to a child or that it relates to choreographed dances that were performed in the French court but there is no evidence to support these origins. What does mind your own ps and qs mean.

Mind your ps and qs came out of the business world with ps and qs serving as short forms for prices and quality. One of the most likely theories about mind your Ps and Qs is related to the pints and quarts served at bars. The expression to mind your Ps and Qs is believed to have originated from the fact that the publican chalks up or writes on the slate the drinks he has.

Mind ones ps and qs. Ps and Qs are just the plurals of the letters P and Q. Improve your English vocabulary with this free 3-minute English language tutorialYoull find a free downl.

The mother reminded her young children to mind their ps and qs when they went over to their friends houses for. The expression mind you ps and qs comes from a typesetters problem of having to view letters in reverse. Mind your Ps and Qs means be careful to behave well and avoid giving offense The NOAD reports that its origin is unknown.

To mind ones manners. To mind ones ps and qs is to be on ones best behavior to mind ones manners.

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