“Weasle-and-stoat, coat”, yeah. Tho I prefer the pre-electric iron theory, personally. I feel like I read somewhere that those were common things to pawn when money was tight, back in the day.
How does one get from weasel to clothes iron? I’d imagine an iron would garner more money than a poor person’s coat, what with it being just a big bar of metal with a handle on.
That’s part of why I prefer that option. While I believe coats were probably more costly vs a poor person’s income than they are today, I agree a clothes iron would likely have been worth more, making it the more obvious thing to pawn; plus in the cold of England you’d probably rather be without your iron than your coat while waiting for payday.
So I had to have a look.
And there’s a few theories, the coat theory, but the others are pretty interesting too:
There has been much speculation about the meaning of the phrase and song title, “Pop Goes the Weasel”.[1][6] Some say a weasel is a tailor’s flat iron, silver-plate dishes, a dead animal, a hatter’s tool, or a spinner’s weasel.[1][23][17] One writer notes, “Weasels do pop their heads up when disturbed and it is quite plausible that this was the source of the name of the dance.”[1]
Heavybell@lemmy.world 3 months ago
“Weasle-and-stoat, coat”, yeah. Tho I prefer the pre-electric iron theory, personally. I feel like I read somewhere that those were common things to pawn when money was tight, back in the day.
SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
How does one get from weasel to clothes iron? I’d imagine an iron would garner more money than a poor person’s coat, what with it being just a big bar of metal with a handle on.
Heavybell@lemmy.world 3 months ago
That’s part of why I prefer that option. While I believe coats were probably more costly vs a poor person’s income than they are today, I agree a clothes iron would likely have been worth more, making it the more obvious thing to pawn; plus in the cold of England you’d probably rather be without your iron than your coat while waiting for payday.
SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml 3 months ago
So I had to have a look.
And there’s a few theories, the coat theory, but the others are pretty interesting too:
There has been much speculation about the meaning of the phrase and song title, “Pop Goes the Weasel”.[1][6] Some say a weasel is a tailor’s flat iron, silver-plate dishes, a dead animal, a hatter’s tool, or a spinner’s weasel.[1][23][17] One writer notes, “Weasels do pop their heads up when disturbed and it is quite plausible that this was the source of the name of the dance.”[1]
Emphasis is mine.