WORD HISTORIES V

Salad days

"Salad days" is a Shakespearean idiom referring to a period of carefree innocence, idealism, and pleasures associated with youth. The expression comes form Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, where Cleopatra says her earlier infatuation with Julius Caesar was foolish: "My salad days when I was green in judgement." "Green" refers to both inexperience and the color of a salad.

Halcyon days

Similar to "salad days", halcyon days refer to a very happy or successful period in the past - usually youth. According to Greek legend, for two weeks every January, Aeolus, father of Alcyone, calms the winds and waves so that Alcyone, in the form of a kingfisher bird, can safely make her nest on the beach and lay her eggs. Hence the term "halcyon days" has come to signify a period of great peace and calm.

Mind Your Ps and Qs

This expression means to mind your manners, watch your language, and in general be on your best behavior. Its origin is unclear. One explanation is that it literally referred to possible confusion of the lower case letters "p" and "q" in school work and typesetting. Based on scholarly research, the OED favors the explanation that "learning his As and Bs and Ps and Qs" (from a 1763 poem by Charles Churchill) has to do with learning the alphabet. Nevertheless, a number of alternative explanations have been considered plausible. One suggests that Ps and Qs is short for "pleases" and "thank-yous [thank-ques]. Another is from the English pubs and taverns of the 17th century. Bartenders would keep watch over the pints and quarts consumed by the patrons, and be careful not to confuse the two units, written as "p" and "q" on the tally slate.