SHUT UP!!!!

SHUT UP! Ever said it? Why is it so much worse than hush up, or be quiet? Well, it's generally a last resort around here...along the lines of a sacred demand by the time we come to that point...with three kids so close in age, all active "talkers" now...that point comes more and more frequently, unfortunately.

Yes, it bothers me also when people tell their children to shut up.

I never do that.

*Hckhmmm*.

Unless they aren't listening to anything else, and I'm in traffic, and I can't think anymore, and it's an emergency, or we are in church, and they know we aren't supposed to to say it, and I know it will get there attention that I'm having to say something I hate for us to say just to get their attention, and I can't help it...

Okay, so working on that. But, the rest of the time I am a calm and gentle, mild mannered, Proverbs 31 woman. Really. Okay, so working on that,too.

Anyway, for those of you interested in odd trivie for the week, here's the scoop on "shut up":

shut
O.E. scyttan "to put in place so as to fasten a door or gate," from W.Gmc. *skutjanan (cf. O.Fris. schetta, M.Du. schutten "to shut, shut up, obstruct"), from P.Gmc. *skut- "project" (see shoot). Meaning "to close by folding or bringing together" is from c.1366. Sense of "to set (someone) free (from)" (c.1500) is obsolete except in dial. phrases such as to get shut of. Colloquial shut-eye for "sleep" is from 1899. To shut (one's) mouth "desist from speaking" is recorded from 1340. Shut up (v.) first recorded 1840. Shut-in "person confined from normal social intercourse" is from 1904. Shut out in baseball sense is from 1881 (v.), 1889 (n.). from
Etymonline.com


And how does that relate to the origen of the word "tattoo"...well, that gets really twisted, but hey, while we are here in no man's land (and who knows where that came from?)...

"What is the origin of the word tattoo?
Tattoo "to form permanent designs on the skin by inserting pigment" is of Polynesian origin. Captain Cook encountered it among Polynesians during his Pacific voyages, and it is in his writings of 1769 that we first find the word in English in the form tattow. The Polynesian word is usually rendered as 'tatau and it is a noun. Cook formed the verb to tattow, as well. The Polynesian term for the act of tattooing is ta 'tatau "to strike or stamp a tattoo".
There is another word tattoo. It is a military term and refers to a signal on bugle or drum for soldiers to retire to their quarters for the evening. It dates from 1644 and derives from Dutch taptoe which had the same meaning. The Dutch term derived from tap (spigot) and toe, which was short for doe toe "shut". The meaning was literally "shut the tap" but was figurative for "shut up" or "shut your mouth", and came to be used to send soldiers to bed. The term was applied to the signal to send them to bed, and then to elaborations on such bugle or drum signals for purposes of entertaining the soldiers. Today the latter sense is the one encountered most often with this version of the word tattoo. "

Sending soldiers to bed...sounds like I can now say shut up to my kids in good conscience?

Ah, still rubs me the wrong way, too. I'm going to have to completely reorient my speech after all this...and that's probably a good thing!

me