Glossary entry (derived from question below)
English term or phrase:
a pot to piss in
English answer:
broke, no money, piss poor
Added to glossary by
jerrie
Mar 15, 2003 08:46
22 yrs ago
English term
Austria
M.A.,22 years of professional experience
Native in: German (Variants: Austrian, Germany)
Works in: English to German, French to German, German
a pot to piss in
English
Other
"I didn´t have so much as a pot to piss in." (Sorry, no more context available..)
Responses
+13
4 mins
Selected
broke, no money, poor
I was so hard up/ short of money, I didn't even have enough for a pot to piss in
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Note added at 2003-03-15 09:09:36 (GMT)
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In medieval London, people did not have indoor plumbing. It was common to use a chamber pot as an indoor toilet. The chamber pot could then be dumped out a window into the street gutter below. A person who did not have a \"pot to piss in\" was poor indeed.
In medieval times the word \"piss\" was not considered at all vulgar. It was not until Victorian England that words such as piss were deemed vulgar. Even today phrases like \"pot to piss in\" and \"Full of Piss and Vinegar\" are somehow considered to be generally acceptable and only moderately crude.
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Note added at 2003-03-15 09:09:36 (GMT)
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In medieval London, people did not have indoor plumbing. It was common to use a chamber pot as an indoor toilet. The chamber pot could then be dumped out a window into the street gutter below. A person who did not have a \"pot to piss in\" was poor indeed.
In medieval times the word \"piss\" was not considered at all vulgar. It was not until Victorian England that words such as piss were deemed vulgar. Even today phrases like \"pot to piss in\" and \"Full of Piss and Vinegar\" are somehow considered to be generally acceptable and only moderately crude.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Graded automatically based on peer agreement. KudoZ."
+1
5 mins
Very poor
This idiom is always expressed in the negative to indicate that sombody is so poor that they don't even have ...
I'd be interested to see if anybody else knows the origins ...
I'd be interested to see if anybody else knows the origins ...
+1
5 mins
Terry Burgess
Mexico
Mexico
Native in English
&
English
Mexico
I place Quality and Accuracy above speed
Native in: English 
Works in: Spanish to English, English
Related KudoZ points
:
119
absolutely snd totally poor/destitute/miserably poor/piss poor
And there are probably a lot more...but what this basically means is the person was so poor, he/she didn't even have a place in which to urinate.
Hope this helps:-)
terry
Hope this helps:-)
terry
Reference:
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
awilliams
: Piss poor. See my comment above about the test. Sorry to be a killjoy.
1 hr
|
1 day 39 mins
Extremely poor
Cecile, a similar phrase in Italian sounds like: "we have no tears to cry"!
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