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by Daydreamer on June 13th, 2005

Daydreamer

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What's the origin of the phrase "you've got the wrong end of the stick"?

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Answers. 3 helpful answers below.

  • by RedJohn on September 25th, 2005

    RedJohn

    The term 'the wrong end of the stick' is not the same as 'the short end of the stick'. The 'wrong end of the stick' basically means that you have misunderstood something. The 'short end of the stick' refers to being shortchanged. My favourite reference for this type of thing, "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable", does not list an origin for the term.

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  • by ggonnigan on June 14th, 2005

    ggonnigan

    I usually hear the term "....short end of the stick"

    Two theories:

    Candles were expensive to make, so often reeds were dipped in tallow and burned instead. When visitors came, it was the custom for guests to make their exit by the time the lights went out. Therefore, if your host didn't want you to stay very long, he would give you a "short stick."

    OR

    In the days of outhouses, often there were outhouses with multiple "holes" so that more than one person could relieve him(her)self at a time. Before the time of toilet paper, Sears catalogs and corn cobs, a stick shaped like a shoe horn was used for "hygienic cleaning." It was rather a short spatula device with a longer handle. Well, if one person was done, he could request that the person using the adjoining hole pass the stick. Of course the person with the stick would pass it holding onto the other person by holding the long end of the stick. The recipient would therefore receive it holding the "short end of the stick."


    Reference Link:

    http://www.rootsweb.com/~genepool/sayings.htm

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  • by drjamesr on January 1st, 2010

    drjamesr

    My belief is that the the saying comes from the printing industry. In the old days text was set using individual pieces of type for each letter. The printer took each piece of type from trays divided up into sections for each individual letter (the space for letter 'e' being the biggest as it's the most common letter). These trays, or "cases", two for each different "font", were placed on a stand above each other, with the "upper case" holding capital letters and the "lower case" the small ones - hence that expression. To set type, the printer selects the necessary characters and places them on a long wooden holder, rather like a ruler with a little ledge at the bottom to hold the type, called "the stick". The type has to be arranged backwards so that it comes out the right way round when printed. The type is put on the stick starting at the right, working to the left, not the usual way of writing. If you do do it the other way around, you get a reverse printed image and you obviously "had the wrong end of the stick" ie got muddled up!

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