Put that in your pipe

Posted by ESC on August 13, 2004

In Reply to: "Put that in your cigarette and smoke it" posted by Gary on August 13, 2004

: : It means something like "get it into your head",
: : I think...
: : What is the origin of this phrase?

: : (PG Wodehouse, of course, actually he writes:
: : "So put that in your twelve-inch cigarette-holder and smoke it." )

: Originally it was, 'put that into your pipe and smoke it', although I don't know the source. It sounds colloquial to me.

PUT THAT IN YOUR PIPE AND SMOKE IT -- "Make what you can of what I've just said!; Digest that, if you can!; Put up with (or tolerate) that -- if you can!; since early C19. Peake, 1824; Dickens in 'Pickwick Papers'; 'Ingoldsby' Barham: Miss Mary Braddon (1837-1915), the now forgotten bestseller of late C19...It's a fact worth noting: that, despite its continuous currency and continual - indeed, constant - use, very little attention has been paid to this phrase, which is, I'd say, rather more of a c.p. (catchphrase) than of a proverbial saying. And, by the way, it derives from the very widely held, not entirely erroneous, belief that pipe-smoking and meditation go together..." From Dictionary of Catch Phrases: American and British, from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day by Eric Partridge, updated and edited by Paul Beal, Scarborough House, Lanham, Md., 1992).