# Not by the hair of my \*chinny chin chin\* : phrase slueths come forward **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 17, 2001, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-by-the-hair-of-my-chinny-chin-chin-phrase-slueths-come-forward/82104 "2001-09-17T05:38:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2001, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-by-the-hair-of-my-chinny-chin-chin-phrase-slueths-come-forward/82104/1 "2001-09-17T05:38:52Z")
What is the origin of the phrase " Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin." come from. ( I know it’s from the Three Little Pigs" But just what does it mean? I’ve exhausted several sources and have hit a road block. ---
**Author:** ![Rue\_DeDay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/41988e/32.png) [@Rue\_DeDay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rue_DeDay)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2001, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-by-the-hair-of-my-chinny-chin-chin-phrase-slueths-come-forward/82104/2 "2001-09-17T11:31:44Z")
You’ve actually done research, and I’m just guessing, but this’ll keep your question from dying untouched… And it might get someone to show up and correct me… “By a hair” means by a slim margin. You would have a very slight chance of success. “Not by a hair” = “No way, José.” “Not by a hair on my chinny chin _chin_.” fills the line and rhymes with “Little Pig, Little Pig, let me come _in_.” Sometimes Story Guys just throw things together because they sound good. (But I’m standing by me “By a hair” theory.) -Rue. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2001, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-by-the-hair-of-my-chinny-chin-chin-phrase-slueths-come-forward/82104/3 "2001-09-17T12:32:05Z")
> [@](#): > > “By a hair” means by a slim margin. I think it’s actually “By a hair’s breadth” or “By a hair’s width”. I don’t know the definitive answer, but I assumed they were swearing on their beards. Sort of like swearing on your mother’s grave (“I swear on my mother’s grave.”), your word (“By my word, you’ll not lose a penny.”), the gods or God (“By God (the Gods), you’ll never succeed!”) and so forth. People used to make oaths on all sorts of things. So “not by the hair…” is saying, “By my beard, you are not getting in!” Taking it out farther, it would be assumed that a person who grows a beard is proud of it; thus, “You’ll get into this house when I shave off my beloved beard!” ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Propski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Guy\_Propski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Propski)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2001, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-by-the-hair-of-my-chinny-chin-chin-phrase-slueths-come-forward/82104/4 "2001-09-17T13:29:27Z")
Just a WAG, but this phrase might mean “No F\*\*\*ing way!” Remember in the olden days that having a beard was the sign of manhood. To forcibly remove a man’s beard was a kind of symbolic castration (Peter the Great had to use force to convice his boyars to shave). So, when swearing by the hairs on your chin, you’re telling the other person that there’s no way you’ll let them in. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2001, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-by-the-hair-of-my-chinny-chin-chin-phrase-slueths-come-forward/82104/5 "2001-09-17T14:22:41Z")
I don’t know if there’s any particular significance. I think that **JohnnyL.A.** said it best with > [@](#): > > People used to make oaths on all sorts of things. You hear people use other phrases of defiance, like “the hell you say,” “my ass,” and (my favorite) “My left nut.” Rather arbitrary without much in the way of etymology. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Lao](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dr.Lao](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Lao)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2001, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-by-the-hair-of-my-chinny-chin-chin-phrase-slueths-come-forward/82104/6 "2001-09-17T14:43:30Z")
Sideshow Bob: By Lucifer’s beard! Chief Wiggum: Uh…yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2001, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-by-the-hair-of-my-chinny-chin-chin-phrase-slueths-come-forward/82104/7 "2001-09-17T15:45:12Z")
Hey, Bible study time! 😃 Johnny nailed it–men used to swear “by their beards”, as in “I won’t let him have it, no, not by my beard!”. And people who make up nursery rhymes made it cuter by saying “not by the hair on my chinny-chin-chin”. Just means “no way”. Back in Bible times, having a beard was a sign of manhood, of adulthood. Swearing “by your beard” was a mighty oath, because it involved your entire manhood, your social status. Having your beard removed was a great humiliation, or a sign of grief and/or penitence, or a punishment. > [@](#): > > \*\*2 Samuel 10 > 3 > the Ammonite nobles said to Hanun their lord, “Do you think David is honoring your father by sending men to you to express sympathy? Hasn’t David sent them to you to explore the city and spy it out and overthrow it?” > 4 > So Hanun seized David’s men, shaved off half of each man’s beard, cut off their garments in the middle at the buttocks, and sent them away. > 5 > When David was told about this, he sent messengers to meet the men, for they were greatly humiliated. The king said, “Stay at Jericho till your beards have grown, and then come back.” > [@](#): > > Ezra 9 > 2 > They have taken some of their daughters as wives for themselves and their sons, and have mingled the holy race with the peoples around them. And the leaders and officials have led the way in this unfaithfulness." > 3 > When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled. > [@](#): > > Isaiah 7 > 19 > They will all come and settle in the steep ravines and in the crevices in the rocks, on all the thornbushes and at all the water holes. > 20 > In that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the River–the king of Assyria–to shave your head and the hair of your legs, and to take off your beards also. > [@](#): > > Isaiah 15 > 1 > An oracle concerning Moab: Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! > 2 > Dibon goes up to its temple, to its high places to weep; Moab wails over Nebo and Medeba. Every head is shaved and every beard cut off. > 3 > In the streets they wear sackcloth; on the roofs and in the public squares they all wail, prostrate with weeping > [@](#): > > Isaiah 50 > 5 > The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back. > 6 > I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. > [@](#): > > Jeremiah 41 > 4 > The day after Gedaliah’s assassination, before anyone knew about it, > 5 > eighty men who had shaved off their beards, torn their clothes and cut themselves came from Shechem, Shiloh and Samaria, bringing grain offerings and incense with them to the house of the LORD. > [@](#): > > Jeremiah 48 > 36 > “So my heart laments for Moab like a flute; it laments like a flute for the men of Kir Hareseth. The wealth they acquired is gone. > 37 > Every head is shaved and every beard cut off; every hand is slashed and every waist is covered with sackcloth. > 38 > On all the roofs in Moab and in the public squares there is nothing but mourning, for I have broken Moab like a jar that no one wants,” declares the LORD. \*\* So Jesus tells people not to swear by the hair on their heads (which I’m assuming includes their beards). > [@](#): > > \*\*Matthew 5 > 36 > And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. > 37 > Simply let your `Yes' be `Yes,’ and your `No,' `No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one. \*\* ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2001, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-by-the-hair-of-my-chinny-chin-chin-phrase-slueths-come-forward/82104/8 "2001-09-17T15:46:34Z")
Make that, “Johnny and Guy nailed it.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Guy\_Propski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/5e9695/32.png) [@Guy\_Propski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guy_Propski)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2001, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-by-the-hair-of-my-chinny-chin-chin-phrase-slueths-come-forward/82104/9 "2001-09-17T16:59:24Z")
'preciate the citation, DDG!