Guts for garters

Posted by Barney on March 30, 2002

In Reply to: Guts for garters posted by Admr1 on March 29, 2002

: : This is driving me slightly insane, the phrase "i'll have your guts for garters" taken on face value is stomach churning! I would love to know where it came from and the meaning behind it-apart from the obvious!

: It's an old British military slang. Ugly, isn't it!? Wonder if it came from the vile punishments they meted out in the old days...gutting someone and actually using the parts...aaaahhh! I quit!

Catgut is a material used for the strings of musical instruments and for surgical sutures, made of the dried twisted intestines of sheep or horses, but not cats. It does not require a huge leap of the imagination to move from that understanding to the voicing of a threat to visit the same fate on the intestines of someone who is annoying you.