Why is three meals of the day called three squares and what is the origin of the expression "three squares"?
372327
It originates from the navy in the days of sail. The day's main meal was served on a square tray/plate. (Easier to carry and stow.)When extra effort/exertion was required they were served '3 square meals a day'.
78784
As for old practices, there were 4 meals in latinamerican cultures, DESAYUNO Which is a light meal eaten by the time you wake up, worth to mention that usualy country people still practice them, since they wake up before sunrise, and it's just a pice of sweat bread with a glass of milk or coffe. ALMUERZO is something much hevier for the stomach, A couple of eggs, or Chilaquiles, or a small portion of Meat, this is eaten by mid morning, say around 9 o 10, assuming of course that you woke up very early, then LA COMIDA, wich usualy is taken between 2 and 4 PM with the family gathered around the table, and finaly LA CENA usually taken by 8 or 9 PM wich and may vary from region to region, and of course the amount of food taken\n\nNow in modern days and specialy in cities, Desayuno and Almuerzo had been merged as a single meal but Comida and Cena still remains as a standard.\n\nIf you ment to ask by the origins of the word, I can't tell. sorry. but the word context had been explained sufficently I hope.
580153
You're telling it wrong. This is how it should go.\n\n"Think of words ending in -GRY. Angry and hungry are two. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is." \n \nAnd the answer is Language. "The English Language."
122285
Meagry.\n\nHonestly, I do wish people would learn to search before asking. I swear this question has been asked at least a dozen times a week in various forms.\n\nThe original riddle is something along the lines of: "Angry and hungry both end in the letters -gry. What is the third word in the English language?" The answer, of course is 'language', with the first and second words being 'the' and 'English', respectively. Without that context, the query is meaningless as there are quite a few obscure and obsolete words in English that end with -gry.
713364
Someone on mindlesscrap.com tried to answer this, but I think they came up with a very inadequate answer:\n\n "The phrase started up in the 1980s by teens in the United States.  It's an offshoot of the use of the word "cool" that had been in existence since the 1940s.  That usage was associated with the cool jazz movement of the 1940s, especially Charlie Parker's 1947 record Cool Blues."\n\nI like my guess better:\n\nIt came from the Grateful Dead culture.  At each G.D concert, there'd be people who would serve up vegetarian fare and love.  Someone started saying that, inspired by the cold bean dish which made a great dip, and didn't require any extra fuel.
468265
In this case, the answer is the third word in the phrase "the English language", i.e. "language"! The part about "angry and hungry" turns out to be a red herring. (from COPYEDITING-L list and the rec.puzzles Usenet newsgroup's FAQ) People who don't know the trick to this puzzle, by changing the wording when they pass the question along, have mangled the question until there is no real answer! \n\nThere is no answer. \nThe puzzle is WRONG. "It's a fraud, it's a fake," says Will Shortz, who is the puzzle editor of the New York Times and the host of a puzzle segment on National Public Radio's Weekend Edition (NPR, 11/10/96). The actual truth is that \nNO other common English word ends in -gry! It's a trick question -- and the trick, at least in some versions, has been lost. Word-puzzle fans and reference librarians have been trying for years to track the question's history to find the original answer. But to do that we need to know what the original question was. And there are several different versions in circulation purporting to be the original.
534929
This expression, meaning "be very careful to behave correctly",\nhas been in use from the 17th century on.  Theories include:  an\nadmonishment to children learning to write; an admonishment to\ntypesetters (who had to look at the letters reversed); an\nadmonishment to seamen not to soil their navy pea-jackets with\ntheir tarred "queues" (pigtails); "mind your pints and quarts";\n"mind your prices and quality"; "mind your pieds and queues"\n(either feet and pigtails, or two dancing figures that had to be\naccurately performed); the substitution of /p/ for "qu" /kw/ in the\nspeech of uneducated ancient Romans; or the confusion by students\nlearning both Latin and Ancient Greek of such cognates as _pente_\nand _quintus_.  And yes, we've heard the joke about the instruction\nto new sextons:  "Mind your keys and pews."
286925
it means fat tuesday, it originated in france.  acyually, it was a pagan celebration, kindof like todays in Louisiana.  It was the day before ash wednesday, which is today.  it was origannally earlier in the month, but when the christians came they moved it, it is now used to party before the 40 days of lent
190242
There are 5 not 3.  The common angry and hungry that everyone will get and \n\naggry, a glass bead found buried in the earth in Ghana.\n \npuggry, a light scarf wound around a hat or helmet to protect the head from the sun\n\nmeagry, of meager appearance\n\nIf you were intending for this to be a joke you need to phrase it differently.  \n\n"Think of words ending in "-gry". "Angry" and "hungry" are two of them. There are only three words in the English language.  What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is."\n\nThe answer in this case would be language.  \n\nSee below for more variations on this riddle.
1171455
This is a rather common question.\n\nIn contemporary English there are only two words which end in -gry. They are 'hungry' and 'angry'.\n\nThere is a popular, but misleading riddle that circulates around the internet that suggests that there is a third -gry word, but there isn't, not one that is in common use anyway. In archaic forms of English (Middle English and Olde English) there are other words that end with -gry, such as 'meagry', meaning 'meagre-looking', but this is obsolete and not a true answer to the puzzle.\n\nThe riddle states something usually along the lines of: \n"Think of words ending in -gry. Angry and hungry are two of them.There are only three words in the English language. What is the third?"\nThe riddle is not saying there are three words ending in -gry. It is saying that there are three words the English language, which means the answer is 'language'...the third word in the phrase 'the English language'. Tricky, isn't it? That seems to be the most appropriate answer that I accept, anyway. \n\nAnother theory is that 'agree' may be accepted because if the riddle is said aloud, it rhymes with 'hungry' and 'angry'...but I find this really dubious.\n\nBasically, there is no correct answer to this puzzle, and there are only two -gry words, not three!\n\nThe webpage below gives a whole bunch of other explanations. I hope all that helps clear this up for you. Good luck :)
293016
"In the Christian calendar, Shrove Tuesday is the English name for the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which in turn marks the beginning of Lent. In many solidly Roman Catholic countries in Europe and the Americas, this is the last day of Carnival. In some historically Francophone places it is Mardi Gras, French for Fat Tuesday; the most famous Shrove Tuesday celebration is the Brazilian Carnival.\n\n"It is also known as Pancake Day or Pancake Tuesday in Britain, Ireland, Australia, and Canada.\n\n"The origin of the name Shrove lies in the archaic English verb 'to shrive' which means to absolve people of their sins. It was common in the Middle Ages for 'shriveners' (priests) to hear people's confessions at this time, to prepare them for Lent."
276090
The answer is:\nIn its proper, original form, the first two sentences have absolutely nothing to do with the question: "Think of words ending in -GRY. Angry and hungry are two of them." Ignore those two sentences. They are there only to throw you off course. (And it worked, didn't it?) What's left is the actual riddle itself: "There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses every day. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is."\nThe key is the phrase "the English language." In this three-word phrase, the third word is simply the word "language." Get it? "Language" is definitely something that "everyone uses every day"! Without that quirky little twist, the puzzle would be just another trivia question, not a riddle.
10858
There are at least two possible origins, and both seem pretty believable:\n\nFirst: In the days of sailing ships when Sailors were paid a pittance, seamen drank their ale in taverns whose keepers were willing to extend credit until payday. Since many of he sailors were illiterate, inn keepers kept a tally of pints and quarts consumed by each sailor on a chalkboard behind the bar. Next to each person's name, a mark was made under "P" for pint or "Q" for quart whenever a seaman ordered another draught. \n\nOn payday, each seaman was liable for each mark next to his name, so he was forced to "mind his P's and Q's" or he would get into financial trouble. To ensure an accurate count by unscrupulous keepers, sailors had to keep their wits and remain somewhat sober. Sobriety usually ensured good behavior, hence the meaning of "mind your P's and Q's." \n\nSecond: "Mind your P's and Q's" is thought to have originated with printers who set headlines using movable type. If you've ever seen old type, you know the letters are mirror images of the regular alphabet. Lower-case P's look like Q's and vice versa. "Mind your P's and Q's" was a reminder not to mix up the letters when putting them back in the rack after use.
331144
Weekly, or once every seven days, often refering to newspapers or other publications.\n\n\n\n"A little solace came at tea-time, in the shape of a double ration of bread--a whole, instead of a half, slice--with the delicious addition of a thin scrape of butter: it was the hebdomadal treat to which we all looked forward from Sabbath to Sabbath."\nJane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
220059
It is conjectured that the seven day week as we know it was developed by the Babylonians over 3000 years ago. Historians believe that the Babylonians were avid astronomers. They based many of their mathematical systems (including their calculations of time) on the movement of the heavenly bodies. The first convenient division of time to be devised (after the day) was the month because it could be tracked by observing the cycles of the moon. It was at some point deemed convenient by Babylonian scholars to find a division of time greater than the day and shorter than the month. The big problem was that a cycle of the moon lasted about 29 and a half days. No round number of days divides evenly into 29 and a half - 4 was the best division they could find. So they went with the seven day week and worried about the loose change of extra days later. \n\nThroughout the world various systems for the week had developed. The most popular competition for the seven day week was the 10 day week. Yet the ten day week proved to be too long for those looking forward to the weekend. Besides, adoption of the seven day week by the Hebrews would ensure its longevity over other forms; during the early Christian Era it grew in popularity with the popularity of both Judaism and Christianity. The Christians converted the Romans and the Romans forcibly converted the remainder of the civilized world. In this way the creation story, where God creates the universe in six days and then rests on the seventh, became a model for the activities of all mankind. \n\nSo today we still use the seven day week. Only now, as a tribute to man's productivity, we rest two days a week. Like the week itself, each day of the week has its own particular story.
545590
The following is the wonderful answer, chosen as BEST, given by HONARARIUS, in reply to this very question, asked by alan, 2months ago.  I cannot top this answer. It is great:\n\n"There is no egg in eggplant or ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins were not invented in England nor french fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese. So, one moose, 2 meese? One index, two indices? Is cheese the plural of choose? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? \n\nIn what language do people recite at a play, and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Have noses that run and feet that smell? Park on driveways and drive on parkways? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? How can the weather be hot as hell one day and cold as hell another? When a house burns up, it burns down. You fill in a form by filling it out and an alarm clock goes off by going on. When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.\n\nAnd why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this answer, I end it?"\n\nHONORARIUS, wherever you are--hats off to you, again. DHW
754141
The riddle really goes like this:\n"Think of words ending in -gry. Angry and hungry are two of them. There are only three words in the English language. What is the third word? The word is something that everyone uses everyday. If you have listened carefully, I have already told you what it is.” \n\nThe answer is therefore "language."\nIt is the third word in "the English language"