Up the pole?

[BettyNoir]

does anyone know where the phrase "up the pole" came from as a euphemism for being pregnant?

I looked on Google and found references to "up the pole" being used to describe being mad, or drunk. Where I come from "up the pole" has always meant to be pregnant...buy why?

anyone know?

thanks!

[NazNomad]

"Up the duff", or "up the stick" are two that I use.

[milly143]

I always thought it is was up the sticks. Don't know why though.

[BettyNoir]

to be fair the one i hear most often is "knocked up" and it is usually older people that i've heard say things like "so-and-so's up the pole again!" maybe it's a generational thing. (I'm in my thirties though so I'm hardly down with the kids) it's an odd way of describing pregnancy.

[milly143]

: : : UP THE POKE/POLE/SPOUT/STICK -- "adj., British. pregnant. These expressions are in mainly working-class use. They are all vulgar, simultaneously evoking the male and female sex organs and the idea of a baby being lodged or jammed. They can describe either the act of conception, as in 'he's put her up the stick' or the condition, as in 'she's up the stick again.'" From "Dictionary of Contemporary Slang" by Tony Thorne (Pantheon Books, New York, 1990).

[BettyNoir]

Ah thanks Milly! Maybe i've just spent too many years hanging around with common people!

[heathfield]

Here in Scotland as kids, if, for example, our game of street football came to an end because the tennis ball we were using had become stuck in a roof gutter, or disappeared into an irascible neighbour's garden, we'd chant ''The game's up the pole''. Nothing to do with pregnancy.

[piggynose]

i like the spanish word, penalti!!! isnt that very clear, better than up the duff