Gnats p!ss

Posted by Lewis on September 05, 2005

In Reply to: Gnats pee posted by Steve E on September 02, 2005

: : : : I would love to know Origin of the phrase 'it tastes like gnat's pee'.

: : : I doubt there's an 'origin'. This is a phrase that just seems to have crept into UK English and, perhaps, elsewhere. I remember it as being used over 50 years ago. It's usually confined to describing weak tea (or coffee also these days). Derogatory.

: : I'd add that the original term is "gnat's piss", and most people in the UK who use the phrase at all use it in that form. The general feeling seems to be that if you're going to use a crude metaphor there's no point in trying to be genteel about it.

: I have heard in the US over the years an expression (crude metaphor) for weak and tasteless coffee: 'panther piss'

I guess that gnats have weak/ insignificant urine - so weak that nobody ever notices it, hence
the expression.

L