"Foot-in-Mouth Disease" is a combination of a play on words and a
development of another expression - "putting your foot in it." What the
"it" refers to is uncertain and lost in the mists of time, but the overall
intent of the expression is to metaphorically convey a sense of personal
embarrassment at having stepped on or into something unpleasant (usually
pooh of some kind) to the discomfort of others or as an affront to
propriety. Hence the personal embarrassment element if you have any social
conscience. "Putting your foot in it" is typically more generally used to
explain when a person has inadvertently SAID something to their personal
embarrassment because it's made them look like an idiot..
Then there is an all-too-well-known disease amongst cattle called "Foot and
Mouth Disease". It's a fatal disease in that Cattle that catch it wind up
being shot. If they weren't shot, they would actually recover from it quite
nicely, but the powers-that-be reckon that the meat from such cattle is
tainted and therefore unfit for human comsumption (actually, it's not
unfit; it just tastes a bit funny). To avoid the disease spreading and
tainting other valuable cattle in this way, affected beasts are destroyed.
I digress. To revert to the original expression, "putting your foot in it",
and comparing it with "Foot and Mouth", you can quickly substitute "it" for
"mouth" and come up with a similar expression that triggers a humourous
mental image. Me, I get an image of a guy who has just said something he
regrets (he's "put his foot in it") and is preventing himself from saying
anything more embarrassing by gagging himself with his foot (a difficult
contortion for anyone more than a few months old *, and thus a method of
self-gagging that causes a certain amount of physical discomfort. It's a
nice counterpoint to the mental discomfort being coveyed by the expression
itself) - hence "Foot IN Mouth". [* Professional Contortionists excluded.]
Comparing this new expression back with the term "Foot and Mouth Disease",
we now note only small differences. "Foot AND Mouth Disease" looks similar
to the more humourous-sounding "Foot IN Mouth", and, with the embezzlement
of the word "Disease" to add to the end, the expression "Foot in Mouth
Disease" has now been adopted to refer to any instance where someone has
embarrassed himself/herself by saying something he/she would have been
better off not having said at all. It now largely replaces the original
"Putting your foot in it", because it sounds funnier and because it adds
more tone and colour to the intent of the expression.
In my perverse way, I've now completely explained out any humour that there
might ever have been, and in a way that is probably completely
incomprehensible to poor Ofer, who was brave enough to give me this opening
to start with. I can now retire, satisfied at a job well done.
Peter
Ofer Cohen <[log in to unmask]> 29/05/2003 02:23 PM
Sent by: TechNet <[log in to unmask]>
Please respond to "TechNet E-Mail Forum."; Please respond to Ofer Cohen
To: [log in to unmask]
cc: (bcc: DUNCAN Peter/Asst Prin Engr/ST Aero/ST Group)
Subject: Re: [TN] C-ya'll...
All,
Excuse me for a layman's question (endangering myself again, like in my
previous question, in being accredited as a certified fool - not taking it
personally, of course; after all, everybody around has become so nice and
dam PC lately...) , but I want, after the storm is mostly over, to learn
something: what is the "foot-in-mouth disease"?
Regards
Ofer Cohen
Quality Assurance Manager
Seabridge Ltd.
-----Original Message-----
From: Werner Engelmaier [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, May 28, 2003 8:56 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [TN] C-ya'll...
Hi Steve,
I do not know what you are reacting to--maybe some exchange I did not
read--,
but whatever it was, you should not take it so seriously!!!
We all, at times suffer from foot-in-mouth disease--that is a part of
extending yourself in conversations--that's what they are, only written
hurridly--on
this Forum.
Look what happened when Moonman left us--the Forum was poorer for it.
You always have naysayers and sticks-in-the-mud--everywhere--don't let them
dictate your life.
So I urge you to reconsider.
Regards,
Werner Engelmaier
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