# Mind your P's and Q's?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-your-ps-and-qs/43505>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 1, 2000, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-your-ps-and-qs/43505 "2000-12-01T02:59:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TheGoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@TheGoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheGoat)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-your-ps-and-qs/43505/1 "2000-12-01T02:59:38Z")

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Allright I can’t believe this hasn’t been asked before, but ever time a search for it I come up with around 400 answers. Where does the phrase “Mind your P’s and Q’s come from?” Someone once told me that it came from writing script. That a script p, and a script q are so similar that people were told to mind them to make sure they didn’t mix the letter up. I’m inclined to beleive this person, but does anyone else have any theories?

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**Author:** ![MonkeyMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@MonkeyMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMan)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-your-ps-and-qs/43505/2 "2000-12-01T03:04:36Z")

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I’ve heard it was from the whiskey-fueled American Revolution. Our glorious forefathers were two-fisted drinkers, so officers had to remind their men to mind their “pints and quarts.”

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**Author:** ![Gaspode](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/aeb1de/32.png) [@Gaspode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaspode)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-your-ps-and-qs/43505/3 "2000-12-01T03:05:17Z")

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The theory I heard (and it seems to make sense) was that it came from the days of the old moveable type printing presses. Each letter was carved onto a wooden or lead block in mirror image and inserted into a frame to spell out the word. The type setters had to be especially careful with lower case "p"s and "q"s simply because they are already mirror images of each other. So for importatant jobs the reminder to 'watch your "p"s and and "q"s was very appropriate.

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**Author:** ![toonerama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecae2f/32.png) [@toonerama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toonerama)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-your-ps-and-qs/43505/4 "2000-12-01T03:10:19Z")

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[http://www.alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxmindyo.html](http://www.alt-usage-english.org/excerpts/fxmindyo.html)

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**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-your-ps-and-qs/43505/5 "2000-12-01T03:21:35Z")

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What do you say we let the master take a shot at it.

[P’s & Q’s](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_264.html)

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**Author:** ![TheGoat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@TheGoat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheGoat)\
**Post date:** [December 1, 2000, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mind-your-ps-and-qs/43505/6 "2000-12-01T03:36:28Z")

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Thanks I new the answer had to be around here somewhere.