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Foot in mouth

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on April 15, 2011 at 17:09

In Reply to: Foot in mouth posted by robert on April 15, 2011 at 13:23:

: Where did the expression 'he stuck his foot in his mouth' come from?

It started with the phrase "to put one's foot in it", which dates back to the 18th century and means to make an embarrassing blunder in conversation. (The image is of inadvertently stepping in something you would rather not.) In the mid-20th century it was a popular joke to say "every time I open my mouth I put my foot in it". This became so commonplace that people took to speaking of "putting one's foot in one's mouth" and a tactless person as "having foot-in-mouth disease". (VSD)

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