Where did the expression "shotgun wedding" come from?
458276
Because in the rural south and Appalachian mtns. a guy would 'deflower' a girl and her father would demand a 'bride price' i.e. marriage and was there with his shotgun to see that the deed was made legal before witnesses. I think it's charming, i think my daughters would go for this, think how cute the piccys would be!
752734
Cute and sappy with a Texas Hold 'em flare: \n"We're All-in."\n\n\nI know someone who jsut got married and she got a very funny and cute engraving in her husband's band -- "Do not Remove."  true story
950104
The knucklehead who wed them.
98950
"Who chose cake?"\n\nIt's exact etymology is unclear but this much is certain: the British coined the phrase. \n\n"The first documented appearance of the term is in 1943, in an small book of British military slang, although sources claim it was used in the RAF throughout World War Two, and was originally a Yorkshire dialect term in use at least since 1914."
913718
As far as I know, the slang word goes right back to the Middle Ages, when a "burd" was a poetic name for a "lady". You can still read old ballads about "Burd Ellen".\n\nThe name was early on confused with the word "bride" as well as "bird" and has become one of the most common British slang terms.
684747
I suppose from India, as while getting married, the end of girls saree or lehnga( A dress which she wears) is tied to the men's apperal while performing a ritual known as fere in which they have to go around fire promising each other 7 promises.\nAfter they have completed the fere followed by another ritual they are declared as husband and wife.
492206
"A Scarborough Warning is to let something go by the run and without seeing that everyone was clear, i.e., with no warning at all. The expression is of very ancient origin, as is also Jedburgh Justice , which in the old moss trooping days meant to hang first and try the case afterwards."\n\n"The expression "Jeddart justice" or "Jethart Justice", where a man was hanged first, and tried afterward (compare Lynch law), seems to have arisen from one case of summary execution of a gang of villains."\n\n"give her what we call in uk the scarbrough warning!tell her how youfeel,how shes treating you..are a human or a door mat,because shes wiping her feet all over you...just imagine the conversation shes having when she talks to her female mates...all about you..yor a wimp..soft touch... \nweak as p*ss...and so on...so tell her thats it enoughs enough!!if she doesnt stop shes out of your life forgood..let her go she deserves a bloke who can fight back...(not into female violance)but a good crack wouldnt go a miss...best wishes"
613394
Today, the tradition of a honeymoon following nuptials has, long way from its original meaning. Today's "happy ending" to the wedding event is a far cry from its much different beginnings. The word honeymoon has its roots in the Norse word "hjunottsmanathr" which was anything but blissful. Northern European history describes the abduction of a bride from neighboring village. It was imperative, that the abductor, the husband to be, take his bride to be into hiding for period of time. His friends assured his and her safe keeping and kept their whereabouts unknown. Once the bride's family gave up their search, the bride groom returned to his people. This folkloric explanation presumably is the origin of today's honeymoon, for its original meaning meant hiding. \n\nThe Scandinavian word for honeymoon is derived, in part, from an ancient Northern European custom in which newlyweds, for the first month of their married life, drank a daily cup of honeyed wine called mead. The ancient practices of kidnaping of bride and drinking the honeyed wine date back to the history of Atilla, king of the Asiatic Huns from A.D. 433 to A.D. 453. \n\nSo that leaves us with the question of where the "moon" in the word "honeymoon" originates. One piece of folklore relates that the origin of the word moon comes from a cynical inference. To the Northern Europeans the terms referred to the body's monthly cycle and, its combination with honey, suggested that not all moon's of married life were as sweet as the first. British prose writers and poets, in the 16th and 17th centuries, often made use of the Nordic interpretation of honeymoon as a waxing and waning of marital affection. \n\nCertainly we have, long way and there is a vast difference between the original meaning of honeymoon and its present-day connotation. The newer version is, of course, the more pleasant one!
1004452
The phrase comes from a Norse (and then Middle English) verb that has been lost to us.  You might even trace the expression to the Greek verb "agein," which means "to lead," or maybe "agon," which is a contest.\n\nRegretably, it has nothing to do with eggs, egg products, or the laying of eggs.
5836
Today, the tradition of a honeymoon following nuptials has, long way from its original meaning. Today's "happy ending" to the wedding event is a far cry from its much different beginnings. The word honeymoon has its roots in the Norse word "hjunottsmanathr" which was anything but blissful. Northern European history describes the abduction of a bride from neighboring village. It was imperative, that the abductor, the husband to be, take his bride to be into hiding for period of time. His friends assured his and her safe keeping and kept their whereabouts unknown. Once the bride's family gave up their search, the bride groom returned to his people. This folkloric explanation presumably is the origin of today's honeymoon, for its original meaning meant hiding. \n\nThe Scandinavian word for honeymoon is derived, in part, from an ancient Northern European custom in which newlyweds, for the first month of their married life, drank a daily cup of honeyed wine called mead. The ancient practices of kidnaping of bride and drinking the honeyed wine date back to the history of Atilla, king of the Asiatic Huns from A.D. 433 to A.D. 453. \n\nSo that leaves us with the question of where the "moon" in the word "honeymoon" originates. One piece of folklore relates that the origin of the word moon comes from a cynical inference. To the Northern Europeans the terms referred to the body's monthly cycle and, its combination with honey, suggested that not all moon's of married life were as sweet as the first. British prose writers and poets, in the 16th and 17th centuries, often made use of the Nordic interpretation of honeymoon as a waxing and waning of marital affection.
160774
Sawed off shotguns. Wonderful little guns.\n sawn-off shotgun (British) or sawed-off shotgun (U.S.) is a type of shotgun with a shorter barrel (and often a shortened or removed stock), compared to regular shotguns. Also sometimes just called a "sawn-off" or "sawed-off", the weapon generally has larger spread and a more limited range. The shorter barrel would also make it easier to conceal — which combined with the aforementioned tactical characteristics have led to use for nefarious purposes, such as armed robbery. As a result of this, many jurisdictions have a minimum legal length for shotgun barrels.  the United States, it is illegal to possess a sawed-off shotgun (a barrel length less than 18 in. or 46 cm) without a tax-stamped permit from the United States Treasury, which requires an extensive background check and a $200 fee for every transfer. A new tax stamp must be purchased with every transfer of the short-barrelled shotgun, and transfers must be made through a Class III Federal Firearms Licensed (FFL) dealer. State and local laws may entirely prohibit civilian possession of short-barrelled shotguns.
578919
Everyone is wrong except the guy who said it was from Anglo-Saxon.  "F..k" has a long pedigree in the Germanic languages.  It was found in Proto-Germanic about 2500 years ago as the verb *fukan 'have intercourse'.  This was not vulgar at that time and was a euphemism for some older word.  Ultimately, it comes from Proto-Indo-European *pug- "to strike", from which we get the borrowed Latin form pugilism 'boxing'.
23392
This is what I found: "It sounds as if this expression for surviving or overcoming nearly insuperable obstacles ought to have a nautical origin, doesn’t it? But there’s no evidence to support that.\n\nIt appears in print around the beginning of the twentieth century. The first example I’ve found is from 1901, but there is a substantial set in the books and newspapers later in that decade, showing that it had by then become widely known. The first form that appears is hell and high water; the form you give, which is now standard, comes along several decades later, together with through hell and high water and variations.\n\nThe setting of many of the earliest examples strongly point to cattle ranching as the origin, in particular the driving of cattle to railheads in the mid West in the latter part of the nineteenth century. In 1939 Paul Wellman published a book with the title Trampling Herd: the Story of the Cattle Range in America in which he wrote: “ ‘In spite of hell and high water’ is a legacy of the cattle trail when the cowboys drove their horn-spiked masses of longhorns through high water at every river and continuous hell between.”\n\nAn article about an old-time cattleman that appeared in the Washington Post in November 1905 supports this: “He prospered in those palmy days until he became the largest cattle owner in the territory and felt able to take his regular blowout in St Louis, until 1884, when, between the alien land law, drought and rustlers, the “hell and high water of the cattlemen,” he ... walked out of the Kansas City stock yards a few hundred thousand dollars worse off and no cattle worth putting an iron on, much less pulling grass by hand to feed.”"
401737
Of course it is...Where do you think the saying "running around with your head chopped off" came from.
89653
My dad use to say that sometimes when I was going out on a date.  "Going to watch the submarine races?" It would be nice to know the origin of that.  All I could think of was making out.
647206
By far the most shocking one that I'd discovered was "feisty," which literally means "like a farting dog."  It comes from an abbreviation of the phrase "fisting hound" or "fisting dog," and "fist" was in this case a reference to breaking wind.  (Though "fist" was used in the phrase as a general pejorative, like if you tripped over the "fucking chair.")
131918
The phrase means to die.  It comes from the following:  The wooden frame that slaughtered animals were hung from is known as a bucket. The death spasms of the animals caused them to kick the bucket. \n\nI refer to the site below for all of my phrase origin needs.