To Pull Ones Leg Meaning: to play a trick on someone Origin: From the old days in England when people were hung and left to swing in the wind, the poor children would try to pull the hangmen by their leg to get something of value to pop out. Matures would come by and tell the children to leave the dead alone and not to -pull ones leg- as a trick to get something in return for their efforts.

The idiom dates from the late 19th century stemming from pulling one's leg in order to trip them making them fall and then committing some kind of trick or robbing the person. In Scotland by the early 1900's it carried a similar meaning except it was missing the lighthearted touch it has today. Back then it meant to make a fool of the person by outright cheating. A more grisly and somewhat plausisble theory that some experts dismiss comes from executions by hangings. As the story goes; to shorten up the suffering sometimes family members would pull the soon to be deceased legs. Source: http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=532670

When you pull a person's leg you are spoofing or making fun of him, usually in a good-humored way. But that wasn't always the meaning of the expression. When the expression first turned up in Scotland about a hundred years ago, it was lacking the lighthearted touch it has today. In those days 'pull one's leg' meant to make of fool of him, often by outright cheating. The best theory of the origin of the phrase is that by tripping a person -- pulling his leg -- you can throw him into a state of confusion and make him look very foolish indeed." From "Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins" by William and Mary Morris (HarperCollinsPublishers). If someone says "don't pull my leg" they want you to stop playing a joke on them; to stop telling fibs and to tell the truth. There is a sense of good humour about the whole concept, but it may not have always been so. The origin is found in a Scottish rhyme in which "draw" is used in the sense of "pull" rather than the word itself. It goes: He preached, and at last drew the auld body's leg, Sae the Kirk got the gatherins o' our Aunty Meg. The rather more sombre overtones of this possibility than are apparent in the British use of the phrase are mirrored in the American usage. http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/19/messages/1380.html You might have heard of several idioms involving human extremities. Break a leg or shake a leg or not having a leg to stand on. However, debunking a case of leg pulling does not involve pulling any fingers. Serious leg pulling means you've been playfully deceiving others by telling outrageous stories with a straight face or spoofing them with a lighthearted gag. Imagine my surprise when I read in pukesick's that it was a phrase from the underworld. This colloquial idiom is a really bizarre example of a popular saying that means more than just the words it contains. The idiom dates from the late 19th century stemming from pulling one's leg in order to trip them making them fall and then committing some kind of trick or robbing the person. In Scotland by the early 1900's it carried a similar meaning except it was missing the lighthearted touch it has today. Back then it meant to make a fool of the person by outright cheating. A more grisly and somewhat plausisble theory that some experts dismiss comes from executions by hangings. As the story goes; to shorten up the suffering sometimes family members would pull the soon to be deceased legs. In England the phrase takes a slight twist. The phrase is usually, "don't pull my leg" in a good humored manner, meaning to stop playing a joke on them; to stop telling fibs and to tell the truth. One person tells: The origin is found in a Scottish rhyme in which "draw" is used in the sense of "pull" rather than the word itself. It goes: He preached, and at last drew the auld body's leg, Sae the Kirk got the gatherins o' our Aunty Meg. The suggestion in the rhyme is that Aunty Meg was hung for a crime and, at the end, the preacher pulled on her legs to ensure that she was dead. The rather more sombre overtones of this possibility than are apparent in the British use of the phrase are mirrored in the American usage, where there is much more a feeling of trickery and deception when the saying is used. Since the idiom dates from the late 1800's and long after the technology of hanging had rendered such gruesome embellishments unnecessary. "The more likely source is the practice of street thieves tripping their victims as a prelude to robbing them. To "pull someone's leg" thus meant to trick, disorient and confuse a person." The common expression appears in other places in the world. If a native Spanish speaker were to exclaim, "You're taking my hair!" or " ¡Me estás tomando el pelo! It's equivalent to the same idiom, "You're pulling my leg!" The French say: Tu te paies ma tete!, translated it means, You're treating yourself to my head!and Germans say it like this, Du willst mich wohl auf den Arm nehmen! or literally, You want to take me up the arm! http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=532670 2107 Curious Word Origins, Sayings and Expressions from White Elephant to Song Dance says about pull one's leg: To coax, wheedle, blarney; bamboozle, delude, pull the wool over one's eyes; befool, make fun of one. Our cousins over the seas, among whom the expression originated, use it in the latter senses; the first is an American addition, carrying the tomfoolery into downright cheating and chiseling.

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It actually appears much earlier in written form... in The Bible. Here's the connection: Jacob, which means "leg-puller" in Hebrew, "deceived" his father Issac for a blessing. (GEN 27:19) Isaac had his "leg pulled" by Jacob - he made him believe something that wasn’t true.