At work, minding my own business, and, well, I’ll make this short. What does the phrase “a pig and a poke mean” as in, I’m buying a pig and a poke. I just overheard someone say it at work, and once I stopped giggling, I was really confused. Can I get some help on this one?
IIRC it’s “buying a pig in a poke.” A poke being a kind of sack. The idea being that you can’t see the pig inside the sack, so you don’t know what kind of pig you’re getting, hence, don’t really know if you’re making a good deal or a bad one.
Haven’t you ever seen National Lampoon’s European Vacation?
That, of course, is the only thing that comes to my mind whenever I hear the expression.
Correct, according to Webster’s. It got more confused with the women’s “poke bonnets” (c1800), resulting in rude jokes about a pig in a poke bonnet.
Just this morning I heard a politician on the news talking about New York State “being sold a pup,” an expression I haven’t heard in donkey’s years!
I think I saw “Buy a pig and a poke” in an ad for a combination swine farm/brothel once, but I could be mistaken.
Apparently in fairs in the olden days, it was sometimes popular sport to sell live suckling pigs pre-bagged to the country folk in town for the big day. Except, of course, there wasn’t a piglet in the burlap sack – it was a cat. And by the time they opened the bag and discovered they’d been had, it was too late: no backsies! This leads to another phrase: When a secret is divulged, the cat is let out of the bag!
The poke in this case come from the same root word as pocket and pouch.
I have, but apparently, I need to re-watch it 
Knowing that, I realize he used the expression wrong. That makes him even more ridiculous. More giggles.
I have shared the info learned here with about 4 co-workers so far. I plan to share it with the world by using both expressions (and then explaining them) at least once a day. Thank you all for making me look smarter then I really am. I did, of course, let everyone know that I didn’t just know these things. It was the miracle of the Internet.
I hope the op doesn’t mind if I ask about a different phrase that’s left me wondering.
Heard in the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World when one ship is trying to get away from another: “Run like smoke and oak 'em.”
I’m pretty sure that “running like smoke” would be something like going so fast you’re uncatchable but dang if I can figure out what “oak 'em” means.
Don’t mind at, but then I’ll have to add it to my list to use and describe daily. Pretty soon, I’ll only be speaking in outdated phrases. If I was wittier, I would think of one to add here _______________________
OK, now everyone laugh and pretend I’m funny.
It’s “oakum”, a fibrous material used to fill seams between planks on a ship. But I dunno why one would run like it.
I call bullshit. No cat I know would be able to stay hidden in a bag for long. 
I know what you mean – my little Jelly runs a mile when he hears the crinkle of a shopping bag. Maybe olden cats were a lot more mellow? :dubious:
Since oakum is made out of fibers, if it caught fire, it would smoke, and the smoke would probably spread pretty fast.
Thanks, Rocketeer and RealityChuck, for the info though I confess even with learning from you two that the word is “oakum” and not “oak 'em” (I like mine better ), the phrase itself is still a bit odd.
I had another “what the hell does that mean?” moment from the same movie, when one of the shipmates is talking about what I heard as “amber grease”. That one I did manage to track down. He was saying “ambergris” (which is some substance taken from sperm whales for use in making perfume).
Anyway, I don’t mean to derail this topic by turning it into “Movie phrases that left you scratching your head in bewilderment”. Sorry, TwoOnSunday.
Actually, according to the book, Emperor of Scent, ambergris is rancid whale vomit. The author tells an anecdote about a purchasing officer for a European perfume company being called to London, because someone has some actual, real ambergris to sell. It’s a two foot block of black waxy stuff, and it’s going for half a million pounds. The agent took a smear, rubbed it between his hands and let the fragrance waft up, inhaled deeply, and forked over the money on the spot. People are weird.
IIRC ambergris is, basically, sperm whale vomit. How it makes it through the perfume process, I haven’t a clue.
The name of the game show that the Griswolds win their European vacation from is titled A Pig in A Poke.