British/English Escapists, please explain :"Taking the Piss"

[Tiger King]

Not entirely sure of the origins of the phrase but at some point taking the piss was upgraded to 'ripping the piss' for when somebody is being very heavily mocked.

 

[TastyCarcass]

I don't think anyone has said this yet, but the origin is pretty lude/funny.

It comes from the phrase piss proud. That phrase basically means when a man who struggles to achieve an erection gets morning glory.

http://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/piss_proud

A theory as to why morning glory occurs is that it stops the man from peeing in his sleep, it's not an erection achieved from arousal.

So to take the piss, you're reminding him of that, and taking his pride away.

 

[DSK-]

And I thought the question would be about the origins of "It's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!" or something similar :/

Just wait until you hear "bollocks" used in all 1,345 different manners of speech. Your head will explode

Now THAT turn of phrase is a fun one. It's from the Royal Navy where they stored cannonballs on brass dishes that were, for some reason, called 'brass monkeys'.

When the weather got too cold however the curved metal plate would warp and the balls would roll off... Yes and cannonballs rolling freely around on a ship is not very good to have.

Yep, it's quite a fun one

 

[Thaluikhain]

Huh, just noticed the "British/English" in the title.

 

[Woiminkle]

I can't remember where I learned this, probably from Stephen Fry but back in ye olde England, poor people had a bucket for the whole family to piss in to sell to the local tannery, leading to the expressions "piss poor" and being so poor that you "didn't have a pot to piss in"

 

[smithy_2045]

Not so much in Australia. It might well mean something insulting, but Australians are stereotyped as swearing at each other all the time for a reason.

Fair point. Some how it seems actually to be bleeding in to American vernacular to swear at people. But isn't it true that you really can only do that with people you know well and get along with? It certainly is here in the states.

Not quite. Down at the pub or at the cricket/footy club it's pretty much free reign even if you don't know the other blokes all that well. However, you don't call just anyone a ****, you've gotta pick your targets.