Mind your P\s and Q\s Essays - Cognitive Science, Mind

Mind Your P?s and Q?s Spencer Vescovi When I was a little boy and in elementary school my mother would always tell me ?mind your P?s and Q?s.? I always wondered what in the world is she talking about. Later in life as I grew older I looked for as many different meanings as I could. I found out that it has many different meanings over the world from my behavior to the British army. Mind your P?s and Q?s is commonly used by parents in the United States, but what could it possibly mean? Mind your P?s and Q?s essentially means to mind your manners. This means to mind your comments and questions and is commonly said to children1. Surprisingly, British Bar Tenders use this saying too. You might be thinking how does a Bar Tender use this phrase? Bar Tenders in England might say mind your P?s and Q?s as mind your pints and quarts. It was said to help customers remember how much they owed and how much they have already had to drink. In addition, It is also said to people who were acting ruly so they would not fight2. Mind your P?s and Q;s is also quite popular in England with the British Army. Historically, in the British Army, the Officers and Soldiers wore a Pea which is a jacket, and a Quae which is a wig and it was very important not to lose them! The term in the British Army is to mind your Peas and Quae?s which means not to mess up or lose your jacket and wig. In the boot camps or training facilities, the Drill Sergeants and Commanders would say this to the Soldiers2. People all over the world use this saying including the printers who make the newspaper. In the past, the printing business had to hand lay the letter blocks into the machine and some were double sided like P and Q. The printers had apprentice?s which completed this tedious task and would tell them to mind the P?s and Q?s. The P?s and Q?s faced different directions on the letter block and the shop owner didn?t want the apprentice to be confused1. All over the world mind your P?s and Q?s has lots of different meanings. These meanings stretch from the home of an American Mother, the British army, printing presses and British Pubs. So the next time somebody tells you to mind your P?s and Q?s, just think which meaning you think they mean. Sources 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_your_Ps_and_Qs 2.http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/mind-your-ps-and-qs.html