Hair tongs

For people with little or no hair

Poor old Fritz may be feeling that there's nothing left to parody.

quote:

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OK - I'm taking the piss now

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Far be it from a Yank to accuse you lot of misusing your own idioms, but here's what one "expert" says "taking the piss" really means (and where it came from):

quote:

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[Q] From Stephen Balkam: “Could you throw some light on to the origin of taking the piss? My (English) wife seemed to think it meant actually being made to drink someone else’s urine.”
[A] Nothing literal about this one, you will be pleased to hear. It’s usually said that the phrase derives from an older one, piss-proud, which refers to having an erection when waking up in the morning, which is usually attributed to a full bladder (proud here being an obvious pun on its senses of something raised or projecting and of something in which one may take satisfaction).
It’s first recorded, as so many such indecorous expressions are, in Francis Grose’s A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue; in the second edition of 1788 he wrote: “Piss-proud, having a false erection. That old fellow thought he had an erection, but his — was only piss-proud; said of any old fellow who marries a young wife”.
This developed into a figurative sense of somebody who had an exaggerated idea of his own importance. So to take the piss is to deflate somebody, to disabuse them of their mistaken belief that they are special. It’s not recorded before the beginning of the twentieth century.

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I would take exception to that. (Not to you, but to that quote).
The thread about vacuum cleaners prompted threads about toasters and now kettles. So I did this - in a light hearted stab at illustating the sad bunch that we are here sometimes - and I include myself in that too.
What the quote states is that "taking the piss" is to deflate somebody. Not true - at least this side of the pond. It isn't that malicious. It isn't a serious attack. It's just leg pulling. The person that made that quote obviously had a sense-of-humour bypass. S/he is wrong and no "expert".
That more or less gives you the invitation to do the same without having to worry about upsetting anyone.

I dunno, Rasher - I was getting pretty excited about those Dysons, and am now deflated.

Regards,
Davie