A common expression where I came from (Zild) and one which seems to be understood where I am now (Here There Be Dragons), is "as mad as a meataxe".

Speaking of which, "shambles" comes originally from the Latin scamnum, scamni, a footstool. Pre-Conquest, it became the ME word (sceamol I think) for a butcher's block and got reduced, over time, to shambles.

It became applied to, of all things, bishop's palaces during one of Christianity's greater periods - burning of heretics and witches. Doncha just luuurve that ol'time religion? This usage occurred because it became the norm to carry out this form of quasi-legal death by torture in the courtyard at the bishop's palace. It also became the common word for a slaughterhouse, probably about the same time (15th-16th C). Willy-nilly, and for obvious reasons, it also became used to refer to battlegrounds immediately after the fight and before the bodies were carted away.

It was still being used in that sense in the 19th century when an area in Southwark in London was called The Shambles because the tenements there were built over the remains of an older slaughterhouse. Because the area was such a mess (more so than usual for that time), it came to mean any kind of a mess, hence our usage today.

I did have to look up the last part of this!



The idiot also known as Capfka ...