Pay through the nose, spitting image, not to say

April 11th, 2008 by admin

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Posted in April 2008, columns | 8 comments

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8 comments on this post.

  1. Frank:

    December 3rd, 2008 at 12:12 pm

    In regard to the man who was curious as to the origin of the term “paying through the nose.” According to the History channel the term derived from the Vikings in the 9nth century, they put a tax on the Irish, the Irish paid the Vikings to not raid their towns. If they did not pay the taxes the Vikings would slit the noses as a punishment and warning.

  2. Aredt:

    September 10th, 2009 at 11:31 pm

    I bumped here thru google searchin for origins of “payin thru nose”. Nice explanation. Good site. Would book mark it. :-)

    Thanks

  3. Jm:

    October 12th, 2009 at 6:57 pm

    When a log is split, both of the insides look the same, but mirror imaged. Same thing when making wood verniers, when split the two half look identical, but mirrored. Same with splitting marble, each face now being a mirror of the other one.

    The identical mirrored image you get when you split something shows that the two came from one source and look like mirrors of each other. What one would see if looking at them selves in a mirror.

    Splitting image is simply the almost identical mirror image you get when you split something.

  4. David:

    December 1st, 2009 at 9:33 am

    I recall reading once that the expression “spittin’ image” was actually a dialectic contraction of the words, “spirit and image”, meaning the same in looks and deeds. In other words, “He’s the spittin’ image of his father” means, “He’s just like his father.”

  5. Cathy Britt:

    August 13th, 2010 at 2:16 am

    David, you are right…back in slave days, they pronounced spirit as spi-ut, and the word “and” came out like the letter “n”. So, spirit and image sounded like spi-ut-n image…hence “spittin’ image”. I always laugh when people think they are being proper by saying spitting image…it has nothing to do with spit and everything to do with a culture from bye-gone days.

  6. Rich May:

    October 11th, 2010 at 9:17 pm

    It was on a special on the history of SF. It was a corrupt politician who took payoffs and he had a big nose.but can’t recall name. It was on PBS or the history channel a few years ago.

  7. jodi:

    July 23rd, 2012 at 8:03 pm

    I agree Frank thats the same story i was told

  8. Roxana Cowen:

    July 26th, 2012 at 1:44 pm

    Oh stunning colors, love how you mixed different shades of blue together.

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