We’d rather have a stronger drink thanks. People who had given up alcohol would apparently say that they’d sooner drink the ‘water on the wagon than take a stronger drink’. The truth is a little more boring than that: it comes from when a ‘water cart’ was used to clean the streets. These people are wrong but go easy on them. Some people think that this phrase came from when prisoners were allowed one last drink before being carted off (on a wagon). Well, that sounds like the worst idea ever, just as drinking the next day often is. This peculiar phrase came from a crazily unsuccessful method of treating a rabid dog bite by placing hair from the dog in the wound. But have you ever thought “Where the hell did that come from?” No? Well, we’re gonna tell you anyway.įeel free to pull out these random facts next time there’s an awkward silence with your mates.
There’s some pretty weird sayings out there when we talk about how we spent our weekends. Rat-arsed, drunk as a skunk, hair of the dog.
