The Word of the Day site suggests this phrase has more possible origins than any other -- and nobody knows just what to believe. The only thing everyone can agree upon is that the idiom was first cited by the Oxford English Dictionary in 17...
http://ask.yahoo.com/20031127.html
Mind your Ps and Qs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mind your Ps and Qs is an English expression meaning "mind your manners", "mind your language", "be on your best behaviour" or similar. The expression can either be written as Mind your Ps and Qs o...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_your_Ps_and_Qs
Mind your ps and qs - the meaning and origin of this phrase. ... As no one knows the origin I'll just list those suggestions - mind your ps and qs probably derives from one of these:
www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/248000.html
The idiom in English 'mind your Ps and Qs' is puzzling, as there is no very obvious origin for it. The puzzle is investigated. ... Investigations by the Oxford English Dictionary in 2007 when revising the entry turned up early examples of the use of Ps and Qs to mean learning the alphabet. ... Mind your beeswax...
www.worldwidewords.org/articles/psandqs.htm www.worldwidewords.org/articles/psandqs.htm
What is the origin of the phrase Mind your Ps and Qs? Where does the phrase main your P's and Q's come from? What is the origin of the phrase 'mind your Ps and Qs'? What is the origin of the phrase 'mind your P's and Q's?
wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_origin_of_the_phrase_'mi... wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_origin_of_the_phrase_'mind_your_P's_and_Q's'
When looking at a block of type, the letters p and q can be mistaken for each other, hence mind your p's and q's. Why it is taken in a "good manners" sense, well, I'm not good mannered enough to know. Howard Barnes.
www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen01/gen01989.htm
The origin of the phrase, Mind Your Ps And Qs and funny sayings we used to use when we were kids, with phrases and sayings remembered, deciphered and explained. ... One origin story of "mind your Ps and Qs" comes from English pubs and taverns of the seventeenth century. Bartenders would keep a watch on the alcohol...
www.wwwk.co.uk/culture/phrases/mind-ps-qs.htm www.wwwk.co.uk/culture/phrases/mind-ps-qs.htm
pics...
reddit.com/info/2cm8b/comments
Literally, it means "mind your pints and quarts". ... Lower case ps and qs look similar. They are next to each other alphabetically. Children might easily confuse the two, particularly if they were ... I've only ever heard it as an admonishment for swearing, not to be careful. I assumed it had some origin in blasphemy.
surveycentral.org/survey/13833.html
To help them avoid such mistakes, teachers of old used to admonish them to "mind their p's and q's". The second explanation traces the origin back to old English pubs where the number of pints and quarts of ale consumed by a patron were kept on a chalkboard under the heading p's and q's. When a patron had accumulated...
www.bitesizecanada.org/cause_03.htm