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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
this is the answer to a Sunday NYTimes cross word clue..
not openly
what is the QT? any one know the origins?
does in play in UK?, up under?
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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 725
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 725 |
A British broadside ballad (1870) contained the line “Whatever I tell you is on the Q.T.” This is the first record of Q.T. for “on the quiet, in confidence” recorded in English, but no one has established whether the broadside’s anonymous author was the first person to use the initals Q.T. to stand for quiet.
- from The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, by Robert Hendrickson
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Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2002
Posts: 1,692 |
Yes, it works in the UK, or did anyway. Haven't heard it used for a long time so it may be fading out right now.
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
I agree with dxb that this is probably a "meaningless" initialisation - it is just the first and last letters of the word. And it certainly is understandable without explanation on this side of the pond: I first heard the phrase back in the '40s, as a very young person, and immediately understood what was meant, partly, I suppose, from context, but also from the sound of the initials.
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Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
I still use it, but that may be the result of a misspent childhood listening to 1950s BBC radio programmes. I still tend to refer to people as spivs, too, so, you know, um, ...
- Pfranz
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Well --- coming from the place that you do, pfranz, and living where you do now; I s'pose we can't expect anything else, really. 
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Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 725
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Feb 2003
Posts: 725 |
I occasionally use the phrase, in a humorous way. But when I do, I mind my P's and Q's.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
But when I do, I mind my P's and Q's.
And do you do it PDQ?
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Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 742 |
>And do you do it PDQ?
Is that what Lennon/McCartney meant when they wrote, "get bach
Loretta"?
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Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
I heard "on the qt" a long time ago, but haven't heard it recently, except here. It is widely enough
used to be in Macquarries Dictionary:
q.t.
phrase on the q.t., secretly; on the quiet.
And PDQ goes back to my childhood.
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