No one seems to know exactly where the idiom “mind your Ps and Qs” originated, but I’d like to believe that it came from advice to typesetters. In letterpress printing, words are composed metal type letter by metal type letter, left-to-right, with each letter inserted upside down. For beginning typesetters, backward-facing letters are confusing, especially the mirrored lower-case letter pairs p and q, and b and d. And thus the advice to be alert and watch the details (“mind the ps and qs”).
In addition to the typesetting theory, there are many competing explanations — my favorite: an admonishment from a French dancing master to perform the dance figures pieds and queues correctly. Others include a variation on the typesetter advice, but to small children learning to write the alphabet, not to mix up p and q.
This article gives some more possible origins and then clears up the mystery: “Investigations by the Oxford English Dictionary in 2007 when revising the entry turned up early examples of the use of Ps and Qs to mean learning the alphabet. The first is in a poem by Charles Churchill, published in 1763: ‘On all occasions next the chair / He stands for service of the Mayor, / And to instruct him how to use / His A’s and B’s, and P’s and Q’s.’ The conclusion must be that this is the true origin.”
In my current project to feature my large wood type in my printing, my newest broadside uses only Ps and Qs. That’s it above.
This is a great post; very informative! I like your latest project, too. Nice way to bring your post together! Thanks for sharing.
It may have come from here:
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts… So in old England , when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them ‘Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down.’
It’s where we get the phrase ‘mind your P’s and Q’s’
Enjoying your blog,
Ami
Enjoyed this post very much. I’ve been reading about Ps and Qs too, and found all those suggestions, including Ami’s. Fascinating stuff. I love reading books about the alphabet and its history. Your Ps and Qs are stunning. Carol
Brilliant post, Susan – I’d heard of some of these possible derivations, but not all of them. Absolutely love the broadside!
Using “Mind your Ps and Qs” to mean “Don’t drink too much” carried over from England to colonial America, where tavern keepers also sold their brews by the pint and quart. Plenty of old taverns survive, and in the Hudson Valley where I grew up, you can see Ps, Qs and tally marks beneath them carved right into the panelling behind the bars.
I count on you, Susan, for the well-researched post and I’m never disappointed. In my family, my mother applied the p’s and q’s warning often and followed it with,” don’t give me that look, young lady. Your face might freeze that way.” Yikes! Thanks for the memory…I think.