“Piss or get off the pot”
The above phrase, meaning to cease procrastinating
and do something (and, in some cases, to stop preventing others from taking
action), is a derivation of the phrase “shit or get off the pot”. It is believed to date from the days when
there was no indoor plumbing and when a chamber pot (also known as a “po” and a
“gazunder”) was used for urination and defecation.
That phrase is believed to have
developed from the older expression “fish or cut bait”, meaning do something
productive or get out of the way and do something else so as to let others have
a go. The phrase originated in the US in
the mid 19th century.
A succinct comment
to the same effect, by Thomas Paine (1737 – 1809):
-
US President Calvin Coolidge,
commenting on his successor Herbert Hoover.
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