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Pupils also had to mind the order of letters in the alphabet (p comes before q). As noted by W. D. Henkle in Educational Notes and Queries in 1876, in this sense the phrase should be "note your p ' s and q ' s" (lowercase), because the distinction of majuscule P and Q does not pose a problem. [4]
As seen in the photo of the composing stick, a lower case 'q' looks like a 'd', a lower case 'b' looks like a 'p', a lower case 'p' looks like a 'b' and a lower case 'd' looks like a 'q'. This is reputed to be the origin of the expression "mind your p's and q's". It might just as easily have been "mind your b's and d's". [3]
1973: The logic of politeness; or, minding your P's and Q's. In: Papers from the Ninth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society, ed. C. Corum, T. Cedric Smith-Stark, A. Weiser, pages 292–305. Chicago: Department of Linguistics, University of Chicago; 1975: Language and Woman's Place. ISBN 0-19-516757-0
"mind your Ps and Qs" meaning "mind your manners" is quite obviously from "mind your pleases and thank-yous". It is parental baby talk, mimicking the child's simplification of consonant groups in "please" and simply contracting in "thank-you", which latter the plays of Bernard Shaw for example render simply as "Kew".
Twenty questions is a spoken parlor game which encourages deductive reasoning and creativity. It originated in the United States and was played widely in the 19th century. [ 1 ] It escalated in popularity during the late 1940s, when it became the format for a successful weekly radio quiz program.
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