Being sold a pup

[blue2]

Hi

Does anyone know where the phrase 'being sold a pup' comes from?

Thanks

[ChuckFickens]

from farmers markets, if you wanted to buy a piglet the seller would sometimes do the deal and then hand over a bag with a puppy rather than a piglet in it.

[boxtops]

Is the opposite of that, then, "buying a pig in a poke" - where people were sold pigs in bags but you couldn't look to check your pig until money had changed hands? Bags are still called pokes in Scotland.

[ChuckFickens]

Yep, and if your "pig in a poke" was a con you'd probably been sold a pub

[ChuckFickens]

*pup

(fitting a pub in a poke would be a neat trick)

[woofgang]

people used to put cats in the bag instead of pigs as well....hence letting the cat out of the bag.

[boxtops]

Phwah, I wouldn't like to try putting one of my cats into a bag....

[ChuckFickens]

Getting a cat into a bag is the easy bit, gawd forbid the person who lets it out though, serious lacerations are likely to follow!

[Hopkirk]

You haven't met my cat then Chuck.

If I tried to put him in a bag, I wouldn't have much skin left on my wrists.

[scotman]

"Sell a pup to."

Cassell's Slang Dict. makes reference to a 'pup' being a worthless investment in stock market slang.

[wendylg]

pratchett extends schrodingers cat into 3 states, dead, alive or very very angry