Mind your P's and Q's?

Posted by Bruce Kahl on November 02, 2002

In Reply to: Mind your P's and Q's? posted by Anthony Brewer on November 02, 2002

: : "Mind your P's and Q's." Can someone please tell me what this means and where it originated? Thank you!

: This is the first time I have posted to a forum, I'm so excited. LOL. Anyway.
: I have never read anything about this particular phrase, however, I always took it to mean, along with "behave properly", to also mean "be careful". Now I base this on my simple dedution that "p" and "q" are mirror images of each other "pq", thus "be careful" not to mix them up.
: I could be wrong (it would be my second time, LOL)but it always made sense to me.
: Thx for your time. Tony

Welcome to the Board, Tony! And please come back and contribute often.
Yes, it means "be careful" and some people claim it is from the printing industry---a warning to a trainee to watch out when handling the letters "p" and "q" since they could easily be interchanged.