• Heavybell@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    “Weasle-and-stoat, coat”, yeah. Tho I prefer the pre-electric iron theory, personally. I feel like I read somewhere that those were common things to pawn when money was tight, back in the day.

    • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      How does one get from weasel to clothes iron? I’d imagine an iron would garner more money than a poor person’s coat, what with it being just a big bar of metal with a handle on.

      • Heavybell@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        That’s part of why I prefer that option. While I believe coats were probably more costly vs a poor person’s income than they are today, I agree a clothes iron would likely have been worth more, making it the more obvious thing to pawn; plus in the cold of England you’d probably rather be without your iron than your coat while waiting for payday.

        • SturgiesYrFase@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          So I had to have a look.
          And there’s a few theories, the coat theory, but the others are pretty interesting too:

          There has been much speculation about the meaning of the phrase and song title, “Pop Goes the Weasel”.[1][6] Some say a weasel is a tailor’s flat iron, silver-plate dishes, a dead animal, a hatter’s tool, or a spinner’s weasel.[1][23][17] One writer notes, “Weasels do pop their heads up when disturbed and it is quite plausible that this was the source of the name of the dance.”[1]

          Emphasis is mine.