Stupid Foot or Stupid Person

Why is it when someone puts their foot in their mouth…I react…then I feel bad about reacting? Because I’m a sensitive person and never want to hurt anyone’s feelings. :) Truth is I don’t usually react (unless warranted), because I believe most people don’t say mean things just to hurt you, it’s usually something they didn't think through and let it slip….impulsive behavior. I get it. I’m really not jaded enough to fester about this…most of the time…

However, at some point, people that do this frequently think this excuse is acceptable all of the time. It’s not! If you are one of those people that frequently apologizes for saying something insensitive….stop….accept you may just be an insensitive person….because obviously you frequently have insensitive thoughts that slip out.  Own it!

Example:

Friend – I’m sorry about Buster.

Me – Thanks.

Other Person – Guinea Pig? That’s a rodent, right? You should be happy…this is a good thing?

Me – (expression of WTHeck to person I just met) Umm…No! (In my head….you stupid insensitive flippety flap flap!!)

Who says something like that to a person who lost a pet? And, how do you respond?

To thee, I quote Thomas Edison, "You will have many opportunities in life to keep your mouth shut: You should take advantage of every one of them."

This led me to find out where the phrase “foot in mouth” originated? What other good will I get from stupid person being rude? This is what I found on dictionary.com (the example is pretty funny…Silly Jane):

foot in one's mouth, put one's

Say something foolish, embarrassing, or tactless. For example, Jane put her foot in her mouth when she called him by her first husband's name.

This notion is sometimes put as having foot-in-mouth disease, as in He has a bad case of foot-in-mouth disease, always making some tactless remark.

The first expression dates from about 1900. The variant, dating from the mid-1900s, is a play on the foot-and-mouth (sometimes called hoof-and-mouth) disease that afflicts cattle, causing eruptions to break out around the mouth and hoofs.

Quotes:

Winston Churchill

“In the course of my life, I have often had to eat my words, and I must confess that I have always found it a wholesome diet."

Benjamin Franklin

"Better slip with foot than tongue."

As usual with the internet, my search ended in the bathroom….

 “Origins of Familiar Phrases” from Bathroom Reader.

SON OF A GUN Meaning: An epithet. Origin: In the 1800s, British sailors took women along on extended voyages. When babies were born at sea, the mothers delivered them in a partitioned section of the gundeck. Because no one could be sure who the true fathers were, each of these "gunnery" babies was jokingly called a "son of a gun."

GO BERSERK Meaning: Go crazy or to act with reckless abandon. Origin: Viking warriors were incredibly wild and ferocious in battle, probably because they ate hallucinogenic mushrooms in prebattle ceremonies. They charged their enemies recklessly, wearing nothing more than bearskin, which in Old Norse was pronounced "berserkr" or "bear-sark."

PAY THROUGH THE NOSE Meaning: To pay a high price; to pay dearly. Origin: Comes from the ninth-century Ireland. When the Danes conquered the Irish, they imposed an exorbitant Nose Tax on the island's inhabitants. They took a census (by counting noses) and levied oppressive sums on their victims, forcing them to pay by threatening to have their noses actually slit. Paying the tax was "paying through the nose."

If you have any other information on where "put one's foot in one's mouth" originated, I would love to read more. Wheek! Wheek!