ANSWERS: 3
  • One possible explanation is: get out of the wrong side of the bed - be in a bad mood - 1870 Brewer says the origin is from ancient superstition which held it to be unlucky to touch the floor first with the left foot when getting out of bed. Earlier versions of the expression with the same meaning were: 'You got out of bed the wrong way', and 'You got out of bed with the left leg foremost' (which perhaps explains why today's version, which trips off the tongue rather more easily, developed).
  • did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed today? I'll steer clear, then.
  • GET UP ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE BED - "The wrong side of the bed is the left side, according to a superstition that goes back to the time of the Romans. People have been saying other people 'got up on the wrong side of the bed,' 'awoke surly or grouchy,' for well over three centuries now, usually not knowing the real meaning of what they are saying, but the equally old expression 'got up left foot forward' tells the story. The supposedly sinister nature of the left is reflected in many English superstitions and expressions, such as the belief that it is unlucky to put your left shoe first, or to walk into a house left foot first. The Romans, especially Augustus Caesar, were very careful that they got up on the right side of the bed, but there is no evidence that they were less grouchy than anyone else." From "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997). http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/6/messages/909.html (idiomatic) To feel irritable; to be in a bad mood; to have a bad day from the start, for no particular reason. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/get_up_on_the_wrong_side_of_the_bed The wrong side of the bed is the one that leaves you grumpy and unsociable first thing in the morning (my own has two wrong sides). There are many similar expressions that begin the wrong side of ..., of which the original seems to be wrong side of the blanket for a child born illegitimately. Some others are getting on the wrong side of somebody, the wrong side of the law, laughing on the wrong side of one’s mouth, and on the wrong side of forty (or thirty, or fifty, or almost any age, really). All express the idea that there are good and bad aspects of any situation. A well-known American example, the wrong side of the tracks, is the only one of the set that seems to be based in a real, physical location. Some writers say there was once a superstition that to get out of bed on the left side, the sinister side, led to bad luck, but this sounds like a well-meaning attempt to explain the mysterious. If there ever was such a belief, it’s not reflected in the recorded use of the expression, which is actually not that old; it seems to have been derived from another phrase of similar type. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-wro1.htm

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