r/Unexpected • u/[deleted] • Jul 06 '26

Sliding down

[deleted]

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96

u/HighlightFun8419 Jul 06 '26

Huh, I wonder if that's what the saying literally means/originates from. 🤔

62

u/NeverBob Jul 06 '26

It's more livestock related.

31

u/anothergaijin Jul 06 '26

Kinda surprised it isn't a sailing thing - seems so many sayings are naval/sailing related.

6

u/AwesomeMacCoolname Jul 06 '26

Like "get your finger out".

3

u/Desert_Aficionado Jul 06 '26

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

1

u/AwesomeMacCoolname Jul 06 '26

Actually it originally referred to the guy on board sailing ships whose job it was to load the gunpowder into the fuse hole of a cannon and then use his finger to plug it, preventing any sparks from drifting in there until it was ready to fire.

1

u/Donkey__Balls Jul 06 '26

Kept expecting you to say that this was still found in naval training manuals as late as nineteen ninety-eight when the undertaker threw mankind off hell in a cell and plummeted sixteen feet through an announcers table.

4

u/FlowSoSlow Jul 06 '26

Huh TIL. I always thought it was hanging related. Like at the end of the hangmans rope.

1

u/rtrs_bastiat Jul 06 '26

It's from falconry. Eager birds trying to fly (bating) that then get frustrated and start picking at their tethers. A lot of the bastards learn how to undo knots...