I’ve always been fascinated by history.
Not just people and places, but I’m also fascinated by where something came from.
Maybe it’s an object or something that happened and I want to know the origin of where it came from.
Or perhaps it’s a phrase that we use in our own culture.
As you might recall in earlier posts, I wrote about where the middle finger came from and how it became a gesture for a catch phrase.
And in another, I wrote about the origin of the phrase, “Bite Me”.
Both literary masterpieces in my own mind.
But today I offer you two phrases that we still use today.
People today say they’re “broke” when their Starbucks app doesn’t reload with their rewards and they have to drink home coffee like a common pilgrim.
OH THE HORROR
But back in old time London?
Being broke meant your source of income… was your bladder.
Leather tanners needed ammonia to treat animal hides, and the most affordable ammonia came straight from the human pee factory — the original “liquid assets.”
So the poor would relieve themselves into little household pots, then sell it to tradesmen like some medieval Venmo side-hustle.
These folks were called “piss poor.”
*Side Note 1 – That’s the first one, “piss poor”
But wait — the economic humiliation got worse.
If you were so poor you couldn’t even afford the pot to collect your future earnings?
Congratulations — you “didn’t have a pot to piss in.”
*Side Note 2 – that’s the 2nd, “Doesn’t have a pot to piss in”
So you’re in bad shape when people that have to sell their own urine make fun of how poor you are.
But that wasn’t just an insult.
That was your financial statement.
You’re goal is to go from, “Doesn’t have a pot to piss in” to “piss poor”.
And to think: we complain about overdraft fees.
Moral of the story?
If you have indoor plumbing and something other than your own pee funding your lifestyle, you’re already doing better than half of 13th-century London.
My Take on Life and Events 