FoodTastesGood
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Back in the days when they used urine down the local tannery, the poor had to pee in a pot and sell it daily to survive. This mean't you were the "PISS POOR"
Worse than that, the lowest of the low were so poor they couldn't afford to buy a pot at all. "HAVEN'T GOT A POT TO PISS IN" they would pee outside "PISSING IN THE WIND". Oh the good old days!
dmalzahn
I only learned about the tanning part recently, it was in one of the "Clan of the Cave Bear" series books by Jean M. Auel.
dontmagpie
fake
Umbreon07
I think this is the first time I've ever seen the words Scotch and Convenience together.
Sagerider
Romans would use piss to clean their togas. Called Fullers as in fuller brush company.
d7oom9938360
Really
Ullur
[citation needed]
BrailleCortex
He started saying this to anybody who would listen
wazztastic
I’ve masturbated to less.
AKElkKing
So the super poor and the rich could just piss anywhere, for vastly different reasons. Boy have times changed!
magdacereus
Scots used piss to set the dye in wool
TheAdrachian
Or one to throw it out of...
MeezerStandardTime
I hate this kind of shit that gets passed around.
majortool
I'm selling my urine if anyone wants in on the ground floor.
HistoryMajor
"Pissing in the wind" is just a way to describe an act of futility. It'll get you nowhere and you won't be successful.
HistoryMajor
If you piss in the wind (literally) you usually just piss on yourself.
CoryBernardi
No. 'piss' was used as an adjective to intensify meaning, has nothing to do with urine. i.e piss weak, piss easy, etc
wpfranner
Never knew. Now I do. Thanks.
strugglesnuggler
Yeah might wanna get a source before you bring up that tid bit at the cocktail party. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pis1.htm
EdoubleE3
Money doesn't smell .I'm dying
kevinmSmuggler
Those poor dutch geese
buttbuttpartywagon
I thought pissing in the wind was to be so stupid that you'd well... you know
Wastelandbogeyman
Informative and fun!
trigaranus
And factually pulled out of that Dutch guy's bottom. The "explanation" is just made-up nonsense.
Cobaltios
...TIL random sayings actually have a story behind them.
trigaranus
And this story is not it. Actual source in comments above. This is just internet "fact" white noise.
Alkuam2
Only some.
hamper10
No one going to point out the geese eating the dude turds? K.
GeorgeLever
Nor the fact that he's pooping through his clothes?
magdacereus
Or the pigs rooting?
Taleboblen
It must have smelled bad back in the good old piss pot days
mordain23
yes it did, very much so, unless you were used to it, which most people were
EmeraldLight
So... like France?
Walrusth3Cat
can confirm
GAMESTERofLOVE12
Sell it? Who would buy other people’s fluids and solids and WHY? Eww
whycantwesleepforever
They make chocolate pudding out of it
Mattthias
It explains right there...urine was needed for the tanning process. Tanners needed it.
GodLikeButHumble
Emperor Vespasian generated funds by taxing the pee/poo collectors, who'd sell the refuse to tanners.
IsACouchASeat
Just the piss, for ammonia, which they used to make leather
Juggernut
Historically, urine was used in the tanning of hides, and in the production of gunpowder. Crazy, eh?
mordain23
also in dyeing cloth
Madmooch
Part of the process of making leather uses piss or shit to soften it
[deleted]
[deleted]
Madmooch
Not too sure saw some show where they made high end leather soaking it in pigeon poo, somewhere in India or asia
RelartOfGivia
That bitch on the right has quite the stream. Bertha has been keeping hydrated.
armedtexan
No she’s been drinking at the local pub
BlueSpaceLizard
And is that a titty popping out?
Technotoad64
Or she was just holding it in for a long time.
ChillaAquila
Like not sure if it's pee or her water's just broke... or maybe both
magdacereus
Diedre,can you get that dear
cuddlesdotgif
RelartOfGivia
Squating pissing lady is not impressed.
halfwindsor
Nah. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-pis1.htm
robertkayaker127001
Thank you
Cobaltios
Thank you!
pangyre
…All etymological claims with citations should be treated with extreme skepticism.
Nographer
You really think somebody would do that? Just go on the internet and tell lies?
Groznek
Yeah, the way this is written, it sounds right out from an email from your weird uncle or something.
ToxicMolluscinity
*without
pangyre
DERP, thanks, wish I could edit it. :|
Technotoad64
Folk etymology is fun, though! Sparrowgrass, hamburger, crayfish, cockroach!
[deleted]
[deleted]
Technotoad64
It's from the Spanish word "cucaracha", which comes from the Spanish word "cuca", which refers to a certain moth larva. 1/2
Technotoad64
The English spelling comes from "cock" (a male bird) and the Middle English "roach" (a type of edible freshwater fish). 2/2
schrodingerscatfood
The Romans had it all figured out, then we forgot for millennia.
JeffersonSalesrs
This kind of information never made its way to India.
welluhwhatdoyouwantmetosay
But what have the Romans ever done for us? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ
AverySillyName
Didn't their toilets explode?
ensensu
Ah Rome, the America before America.
MrTestCat
The Persians had all that clever shit figured out before them
MrTestCat
Their capital had a sewage system
Kitakita
thanks Christianity!
Walrusth3Cat
*catholicism
Painkiller1020
If the had more time they would have invented the plane.
MightyMorphinPowerPenguins
I wouldnt call it forgetting so much as the Christian dark ages where anything not formally sanctioned by the church was willfully destroyed
MightyMorphinPowerPenguins
Here's a handy graph:
hertta
I see you've seen the same documentary as I have. It was great.
hertta
ie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZHm3vkavgM
schrodingerscatfood
Indeed, that’s the one. :)
KumaPaws376
Aranon
Did that actually happen in the show?
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
The look did. But those urinals are pretty obviously shopped in. They're in the turbolift.
KAPTKipper
The rise of faith and the dark ages are linked.
Walrusth3Cat
yes all those “rational atheists” of ancient times
Slayer1am
Not so much, more like willful ignorance and the banning of approved knowledge by the churches.
Walrusth3Cat
woooooord up
TheNuclearRabbit
If you could call lead pipes "figured out."
RydWolf
FirstThingThatCameToMind
my city is dealing with a lead pipe epidemic right now. Aint noone got shit figured out.
Frassasass
Fun fact, the lead pipes didn't have that big of an impact on their tap water. Higher than modern, but not harmful.
Painkiller1020
If they had a few more years they would have switched to steel.
Millsslslsls
rust?
Arceus
Ghandi would have nuked them before they ever figured steel out.
ToxicMolluscinity
Yep, just a few more years of lead poisoning and they would have figured out all kinds of shit lol
Sharksi
Seems to be normal in the US still. Guess they haven't figured it out yet either...
StupidEcho
Lead pipes lead into my house, which then has copper pipes. Can confirm infrastructure here is a bit behind, but small amounts of lead 1/2
StupidEcho
Over a long period of time can’t be that harmful amirite?
Sharksi
It is. Especially for pregnant women and unborn children. My building in Boston has lead pipes. I was advised not to use the tap water
Alkuam2
"Ooh, money from the gov't to upgrade/repair infrastructure? Guess I do need a new yacht."
jfender
By that measure we only figured it out in 1995
varster
Romans knew lead poisoning and they tried to cover lead devices with oil.
varster
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/~grout/encyclopaedia_romana/wine/leadpoisoning.html
ToxicMolluscinity
"Problem? There's no problem." - Roman Senator during re-election campaign, probably
Ketheres
So you are saying there is oil underground? Hold on, time to deliver some FREEDUM
SpaceOutlaw
"Listen folks, you're supposed to piss in the lead pipes, not drink out of them" - Some roman probably
CassieMoorecock
They were the same lead pipes! ... OK not literally, but they were all made of lead
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
I wouldn't say "all" figured out. They had communal bathrooms where they sat side by side during their dumps, then wiped with a shared /1
InkyBlinkyPinkyAndClyde
sponge on a stick dunked in a bucket of water. I think we've improved on that a bit. /2
verset
And some larger apartment buildings had indoor toilets in the kitchen.
DirtyMikeWithTheBoys
Must have been pretty cool to just compare shits real easy
NoMeatBigfeetIEATWOOD
BatmansUnderPantsAreSoSoft
Lmao
NyQuilDaydream
Made it less fun more like!
Novemburr
everything imcluding your username made this comment
pianoNoodleTraveler
Byzantium existed until 1453. After that, Europe quickly became a center of technological expansion.
ToxicMolluscinity
Those were Greeks though, not really Romans.
eep13
Ugh
pianoNoodleTraveler
Constantine, an emperor of both east and west Rome, moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium aka Constantinople aka Istanbul.
ToxicMolluscinity
Sure but that was before the Fall of Rome in 476. Eastern Roman Empire was around for a thousand years after that and like 90% of that (1/2)
ToxicMolluscinity
time the dynasties and nobles ruling it were Greek, which was also the official language not Latin.
LeonQuin87
So Istanbul was Constantinople. Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople?
ToxicMolluscinity
Even old New York was once New Amsterdam
pianoNoodleTraveler
And if it weren't for those damn Venetians, it might have still been constantinople.
raymondbyrd
Been a long time gone, Constantinople