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There are lots of old wives tales that have spawned common myths and sayings. Did you ever wonder which are based in fact and which are not, or where the sayings came from? Well, let's have a look at a few of them.
One of the most popular old wives tales is about colds and flu. This is one that people often get mixed up. Do you feed a cold and starve a fever? Or is it the other way around, starve a cold and feed a fever? I've heard this one told both ways.
One explanation is you feed a cold, getting the vitamins you need, which in turn will help you from getting a fever. However, this isn't really starving a fever, its more like staving one off. Another explanation is when people have high temperatures, they burn more calories, thus you want to feed it with liquids.
When someone has a cold, without a fever, there are no calories lost, and usually no appetite, thus, no need to take in more calories. Just like fuel on a fire, this refers how to restore balance to one's body temperature, by using food.
Whichever way you look at this saying, you will probably be right because whatever you do about them, these ailments will usually get better on their own, in their own time. The trouble is that the infection often gets better despite what is recommended, rather than because of it!
There is another old saying that when planting peas and beans, the rows should always run north and south. This makes sense since the sun moves from east to west and gives the plants maximum sunshine.
The wild foxglove is a fairy plant in folk-tradition, and has several other names such as Fairy Weed, Dead Men's Bellows, Bloody Man's Fingers, and Witches' Thimble. The Irish believe that foxgloves in the house are unlucky. It should never be taken aboard a ship. To pick the Foxglove is to offend the fairies that live within the flowers and will bring bad luck, even death, to the picker and his family.
The truth of this saying probably lies in the fact it contains a chemical known as digitalis. Used in proper dosages it is often used in modern medicine to treat heart disease, since it slows the rhythm of the heart. However, taken in larger doses, the heart will slow completely until death results.
You have probably heard the saying, "You can make ice faster by starting with warm water." Is this statement truth or fact? Actually, it is true because hot water is steaming, and the process of evaporation (the steam rising) is a cooling process, thus actually causing hot water to freeze faster than cold.
The phrase "getting out on the wrong side of the bed" usually refers to someone having a bad day, or feeling grumpy or crotchety. This goes back to the superstition that, by going to bed on one side at night and getting up out of the other side in the morning, one formed a protective magic circle. Not to do so was bad luck.
The lucky horseshoe is a throwback to a time when it was thought that witches rode on broomsticks because they were afraid of horses. Nailing a horseshoe over your door kept witches from entering.
Speaking of witches, that's an old wives tale that isn't true. Witches weren't really afraid of horses. The reason they ride broomsticks is so that they can fly. Almost everyone knows that! The broomstick (with the bristles forward, please) is a symbolic horse, and used to be commonly used as such by children, when it was called a hobby horse. Why witches were thought to use brooms rather than real horses probably has to do with the poverty most old women endured. The women who were thought to be witches were generally too poor to own a real horse, but almost anybody can own a broom.
The reasoning behind the phrase "Breaking a mirror brings seven years of bad luck" originates in a period of time when the cost of a mirror was so much, it would take approximately seven years to save enough money to replace it.
Another tale I heard often growing up was "let a dog lick a wound because a dog's saliva is antiseptic and will kill germs." This is totally untrue. Dog mouths are infested with the germs of everything they put into them. If you or another animal receives a dog bite, it is like injecting yourself with a large dose of germs, which is why infection is almost inevitable.
Don't let your dog excessively lick his own wounds, either. Veterinarians often give wounded dogs Elizabethan collars or buckets for their heads to prevent the dog from keeping his wound open or ripping out stitches. On the other hand, a mother licking her pup's wound can debride the area allowing faster healing, which is what probably brought about this saying.
"Humpty Dumpty" dates back to the English Civil War. One of the sides had a siege engine called "Humpty Dumpty" because it was a rickety contraption. During one castle siege as "Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall," the engine finally fell over and shattered and "Humpty Dumpty had a great fall." Thus, "All the King's horses, and all the King's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again!" The Egg idea for Humpty Dumpty came when the rhyme was written down in a children's book and the illustrator decided Humpty Dumpty was an egg.
Starting in the early 1600s tobacco was often used as an alternate for currency, it was often said to be "As good as gold."
Only the wealthy could afford real floors. The rest of us were "dirt poor" and had to settle for the bare ground.
Hopefully, this will enlighten you just a little about these sayings. There was one, though, that I just couldn't figure out: Why is it bad luck to say the word "Pig" while at sea?
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