Origins of Mind Your P’s and Q’s
Mind your P’s and Q’s means “to be on one’s best behavior.” From where did this intriguing construction come? Several theories exist. Here are some of the most popular: (1) from a corruption of “Mind your Please and Thank-yous”; (2) from printing foibles as the letters p and q could be easily confused; (3) from the pint or quart tallies on pub charts in England; and (4) from nautical pea-coat and seaman’s queue. However, the most likely theory (5) is that it comes from pied and queue as spoken by French-speaking dance masters to English children of the nobility. I believe that theory five is the most likely linguistic route as it matches best with historical timing, sociolinguistic adoption patterns and syntax, and hierarchical diffusion patterns.
All theories have the aforementioned admonishment arising in Great Britain sometime after the English Civil War (1641–1651) and Restoration of the Stuart kings (1660), or late 17th century and early 18th century. This historical timing eliminates theory one since concern with pleases and thank-yous does not occur as a connection with this dictum until the 20th century (OED). Printing began in Europe in the 15th century, so one would expect that sometime in the 16th century in England that first references to p’s and q’s as derived from theory two would have occurred. However, the earliest notations (pees and kews 1602 and 1607) are in Thomas Dekker’s plays and seem to refer to barmaids and roustabouts who are energetic and combative (OED). No notations specifically related to printing have been attested (OED). No notations regarding bar tabulations of theory three arose at any point so cannot be substantiated (OED). Also, no notations of pee (theory four) referring to the rough-hewn pea-coat and queue referring to a sailor’s tarred pigtail have been noted (OED). In fact, the use of queue to refer to a sailor’s pigtail was not noted until 1774 (OED), but that fact brings us back to the most plausible theory (5), which also involves queues (the powered wig with tail of the nobility).
Historically, the French connection rings true. Reference to P’s and Q’s signifying courtesy or good behavior began to be sprinkled through English in the 18th century beginning in 1756 (OED). Between the years 1660 and 1763 relations between Stuart England and Bourbon France were good: the English kings were back in control with the advice and consent of parliament, and French royalty was enjoying the Golden Age of the Louie’s. “During the term of then king Louis XIV (1635-1715) state balls became very elegant affairs with the minuet being termed ‘The Queen of Dance’”(StreetSwing.com 1999). Louis XIV performed the minuet himself in 1653 at Poitou, and the dance was to dominate every king and queen and their courts for 150 years (StreetSwing.com 1999). According to Judith Cobau, minuet dancing manuals were being printed as early as 1711, and in 1725 Pierre Rameu wrote that there was not a court in Europe that did not have a French dance master (1984). The nobility of Europe took to the minuet as easily as they took to the wigs popularized by Louis XIV. “Among the important facets in the development of French Baroque dance was the invention of a dance notation system, which was originally conceived as a method whereby courtiers could learn the fashionable dances. With the adoption of this system for recording various dances, the French court dance and manners spread far beyond the borders of France”(Aldrich 1998). Raoul-Auger Feuillet published a system in 1700. Feuillet's publication, Chorégraphie, ou l'art de décrire la dance par caractères, was reprinted three times; the last, in 1713 (Aldrich). “In 1706, John Weaver translated the work into English (Orchesography, reissued in 1715)” (Aldrich).
Furthermore, not only was the nobility captured by the dance, but its steps spread to other classes, including the colonial subjects of England’s king. The minuet was introduced to England by Charles II (The Covent Garden Minuet Company 2001). It quickly spread from the court of the king to the lower nobility. “[T]he ‘Master of Ceremonies’ [was] Beau Nash (1674-1761) at Bath [where] the French dance would become the only . . . dances in these ‘Polite Society’s’ programs”(StreetSwing.com). On April 15, 1751, Peter Manigault wrote a letter from London to his mother in South Carolina:
"I have learned to dance almost six Months, and as I have a great Inclination to be a good Dancer, am resolved to continue learning a few Months longer, I am to go pretty often this Summer to an assembly at Chelsea, in Order to compleat myself in that genteel Science. I have been three or four times this Winter, at an Assembly at Mileud: the first time I danced a Minuet in public, my Knees trembled in such a Manner, that I thought, I should not have been able to have gone through with it, however by taking all Opportunities of dancing in Public, I have got over that foolish Bashfulness." (Weber July 1930)
In fact, George Washington’s favorite dance was the minuet, and he was an accomplished dancer (StreetSwing.com). Washington was the soon-to-be general of the Continental Army and then first president of the new country The United States of America. So, the minuet fits into the timeframe when Mind your P’s and Q’s was becoming an aphorism in the English-speaking world.
Now let us look at the sociolinguistic circumstances that would promote the saying Mind your P’s and Q’s. Passing over theory one, which has already been eliminated through historical timing, we arrive at theory two: that the saying arose from a confusion of the letters p and q in typesetting. In the 18th century many more books and pamphlets were being published than ever before, and many more people were learning to read and write. Except for dyslexics, none of these millions of new readers and writers seems to have had a problem with p’s and q’s. I can very well imagine that printing shop owners and managers would direct their apprentices to be careful in setting up type faces. Indeed, if particular type faces were often confused, I can imagine shopkeepers putting up signs that said “Be Aware of p’s and q’s,” but no such signs exist. Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), a master printer and shopkeeper and voluminous writer who enjoyed especially pointing out human quirks and foibles, never mentions a problem with p’s and q’s; neither does Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1398-1468), the original printer and typesetter who used 70,000 printers’ types to print the Bible. More glaring is the fact that the admonishment uses capital P’s and Q’s, not the lowercase ones that could be confused in typesetting. Also, if fine distinctions and meticulous application were the source of the saying, then such a saying would be related to writing and the humanities, but it isn’t. In fact, there exists another saying that fits that purpose: Dotting one’s i’s and crossing one’s t’s. Theory two has little sociolinguistic support.
Theory three claims that the P’s and Q’s come from abbreviations of pint and quart on charts in English pubs. However, where did these charts exist? I can find not one mention of such charts, nor can I find a single image of such charts. This theory sounds like folk etymology formed after the fact. If any P’s and Q’s were being written down, it was by bartenders and barmaids on pads of paper for each customer—the well-worn, traditional tab-keeping method. Such P’s and Q’s would not be the kind to make a mark on the consciousness of the public. I also doubt that “minding pints and quarts” would be heard since the very livelihood of barkeeps depends on keeping tabs; it would be imbued in their psyches. No barmaid that lost track of her customer’s bill would ever keep her job. This theory has no support. Besides, socio-linguistically speaking, if this saying had traveled a natural route, since it has more to do with financial bookkeeping, it would have appeared as a saying of financiers and economists, as did Getting your ducks in a row. Mind your P’s and Q’s didn’t.
Theory four adheres to a nautical genesis. This theory would ring truer if pea-coats and queues were always together, but they weren’t. Sailors in tropical waters rarely wore pea-coats, which were made of rough wool and were quite uncomfortable in warm weather. I also have trouble imagining a queue crusted with tar being very popular with any men. Queues, yes, for pigtails would be a common solution for a ship with no barber, but tarring them? Making them heavy and hot? That seems silly. Besides, how much nautical terminology enters a public’s vocabulary? The public generally grasps only the most basic concepts like anchors and sails and rudders—but not pea-coats and queues. Moreover, I can’t see a British captain caring about or making an order to “mind your pea-coats and queues.” Can anyone imagine the captain in the 2003 movie Master and Commander giving such an order? During his ship’s cruise, he had far more significant events and behaviors to occupy his mind. I’ve read many seafaring novels and seen many seafaring movies, and I never recall one captain making such an absurd order—not even obsessive captains who might have focused on meticulous details; for example, Ahab in Moby Dick, Bligh in Mutiny on the Bounty, Queeg in The Caine Mutiny. Which linguistic route would such a saying take? If it means getting things in order, then it would have been a companion to shipshape, which means just that, but Mind your P’s and Q’s is no companion to that other idiom.
However, theory five’s pieds and queues of the minuet seem much more likely to have been transformed into P’s and Q’s. The minuet involves intricate steps, including bows and, on the part of gentlemen, doffs of hats to the ladies.
"The minuet has an introduction and four figures:
1. the S or Z figure, which was repeated as often as the gentleman desired;
2. the giving of right hands;
3. the giving of left hands;
4. the giving of both hands.
Each minuet step requires two measures of 3/4 time music, and both Rameau and Tomlinson provided descriptions of two popular steps: pas de menuet à deux mouvements, and pas de menuet à trois mouvements. Although considered one of the least technically complicated dances of the era, its importance lay in the quality, assurance, and bearing of the performers, who moved to the elegant music of the finest composers in Europe. The minuet remained a standard, albeit altered, into the mid-twentieth century in Europe and the Americas (Aldrich).
Important in determining the rhythmic components of the dance, bends (pliés) were made on the upbeat of the music and risings (éléves) were performed on the downbeat. For springing steps, such as jetés, the bend and rise were performed on the upbeat; the landing falls on the downbeat. The legs were rotated out approximately forty degrees and the performance of Baroque steps was characterized by controlled, well-defined, and often rapid footwork, all to be performed effortlessly" (Aldrich).
Lord Chesterfield told his son,
"Do you mind your dancing while your dancing master is with you? As you will be often under the necessity of dancing a minuet, I would have you dance it very well. Remember that the graceful motion of the arms, the giving of your hand, and the putting off and putting on of your hat genteely are the material parts of a gentleman’s dancing." (The Covent Garden Minuet Company 2001)
According to Boberg, “Sociolinguistic studies of language changes have shown that personal interaction is the catalyst for the diffusion of at least some kinds of linguistic innovation” (2000). Imagine a French dance instructor trying to get English children to perform those intricate steps. To do so would take immense patience and much repetition. The boisterous male children of the English nobility, wearing powdered wigs with tails and shoes with buckles would, of course, be admonished to be careful with their placement of feet (pieds) and when bowing and doffing their hats, to perform it gently and gracefully so as not to displace the wig (queue). The children would hear the instructions to “Mind your pieds et queues” many times in the course of learning the minuet. Their parents if they watched would hear it, too, and had probably heard it themselves as children. The children, as children do, would repeat it to one another, sometimes seriously, sometimes humorously, sometimes mockingly. And they would hear it one more time as they left home for a dance. “Remember, mind your P’s and Q’s,” the parents might have said, making the command sound more English. The corruption of pieds (pi-es) and queues (Kus) from the French pronunciation to the simpler Anglicized P’s (piz) and Q’s (kjuz) follows a well-worn path when foreign words are adopted into English. Sir Francis Bacon’s French reciproque becomes the English recriprocal, and the French bonhomme transforms into bonhomie (OED).
Moreover, Mind your P’s and Q’s is structured in the time-honored parental command syntax ([S]-V-DO), similar to “Comb your hair,” “Wash your hands,” “Eat your vegetables,” or “Brush your teeth.” First comes the imperative verb Mind with its understood subject (you); the verb is followed by the possessive pronoun marker your; finally appears the direct object P’s and Q’s.
Also particular to children is, when putting pen to paper, to capitalize the P and Q rather than go with the lowercase p and q. If the first generation of English noble children learned the minuet in the late 1600s and early 1700s, then the second generation—including bourgeoisie English and colonial Americans—to learn the dance would have lived in the mid 1700s. Most probably this second generation transliterated the spelling and solidified the Anglicized pronunciation that appears in both English and American versions. Thus, pieds et queues travels a most likely linguistic route to P’s and Q’s.
Furthermore, Theory five also fits in with hierarchical diffusion patterns while the other theories do not. Hierarchical diffusion is the concept that an idea or innovation spreads by moving from greater to lesser places, often leaping distances between places, and often influenced by social elites (“Hierarchical Effects” 2001). Theories two (typesetting problems), three (pub tabulations) and four (seamen’s fashions) would require the diffusion pattern to be a reverse hierarchical pattern, but since almost all of European and American societies had existed for centuries under monarchs, that reverse hierarchical distribution would take place is very unlikely. No monarchs (whether emperor or king) would have adopted the habits and concerns of barmaids, printing apprentices, or common sailors—nor would any of the lower nobility.
Hence, it is more than likely that in hierarchical systems that hierarchical diffusion would take place. Thus, Roman culture and the Latin languages and the Christianity of the Popes were diffused throughout much of Europe through hierarchical diffusion. In early modern Europe, kings and the nobility were the celebrities of their times. Other classes imitated the ones above them. One prime example is the use of wigs, which were popularized by Louis XIV, the most powerful person in Europe during his age. Louis shaved the hair from his head and replaced it with a wig because his own hair was graying and pustules covered the royal scalp (due to gonorrhea and poor hygiene). Because the Sun King wore wigs, the nobility of France and then the nobility of all Europe began wearing wigs. Likewise, once Louis had danced the minuet, it became the dance of all Europe and all European colonial possessions. French dance masters spread the dance with its intricate steps and movements. Moreover, since the French were the dominant political and cultural force in the world at that time, that a French saying is picked up and becomes Anglicized by English and Americans would fit in with a hierarchical diffusion pattern. The admonishment of the French dance masters traveled with the diffusion of the dance to England and North America, where children continue to be told to mind their P’s and Q’s, even in the 21st century. P’s and Q’s came from pieds et queues.
Works Cited and Bibliography
Aldrich, Elizabeth. “Baroque Dance.” Dance Instruction Manuals. 1998. Web. 3 April 2010.
Boberg, Charles. “Geolinguistic Diffusion and the U.S.–Canada Border.” Language Variation and Change, (2000), 12; 1-24. Web. 11 April 2010.
Cobau, Judith. “The Preferred Pas de Menuet.” Dance Research Journal, (Fall 1984), 16, 2. Web. 3 April 2010.
Colonial Music Institute. “How to Dance a Minuet.” 18 September 2001. Web. 3 April 2010.
Covent Garden Minuet Company. “The Minuet.” 2008. Web. 3 April 2010. http://www.minuetcompany.org/theminuet.html
“Cultural Diffusion.” n.d. Web. 8 April 2010. http://teacherweb.ftl.pinecrest.edu/snyderd/APHG/Unit%201/2Review.htm
“Hierarchical Effects.” Glossary. Human Geography in Action. 2001. John Wiley & Sons. Web. 11 April 2010.
Johnstone, Barbara. “Language and Place.” Cambridge Handbook of Socialization. 2010. Web. 11 April 2010.
Kroeber, Alfred. L. “Stimulus Diffusion.” American Anthropologist. 42,1. January-March 1940. Web. 12 April 2010. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/0qn3s0z7#
“P’s and Q’s.” Oxford English Dictionary (OED). 2010. Web. 3 April 2010.
Webber, Mabel. “Peter Manigault’s Letters” [to his mother in Charleston, SC] The South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine 31/3 (July, 1930), 277. Web. 3 April 2010.
Shaw, Dorothy. “The Minuet.” History of Square Dancing. European Association of American Square Dancing Clubs. 25 June 1999. Web. 3 April 2010. http://eaasdc.de/history/sheminue.htm
StreetSwing.com. “Dance History Archives.” 1999. Web. 3 April 2010.
This article was originally submitted to PMLA, but was rejected (2010). I feel the argument is valid, even though it may not have met the rigorous standards of the Modern Language Association. Aphra Behn would have lived during this time; her monarch would have been Charles II, mentioned in this article.
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