You Won’t Believe Where The Term ‘Blowing Smoke Up Your Butt’ Actually Came From
My whole adult like I have tried my best to be a straight shooter. I prefer to be a say it like it is kinda person. But, I've also learned, over time, that sometimes it doesn't hurt to blow a little smoke up someone's butt.
You know what I mean, right? Maybe sugar coat things a bit.
What does the term blowing smoke up your butt mean today?
The official meaning comes from muse.jhu.edu,
Today, "blowing smoke up your arse" is a metaphor that refers to offering insincere compliments.
Yes today, it's just a metaphor for BS, but the term used to be defined much differently.
The term blowing smoke up your butt used to have a a literal, medical meaning
The term mean what you think it would mean. Basically, just like it sounds. Doctors used to blow tobacco smoke up your butt. This is what yanabostongirl found out.
...a figure of speech that has its origin in the tobacco smoke enemas that were popular during the 1700s and was used to treat a variety of health problems ranging from headaches to respiratory illness and as a means of resuscitation victims of drowning as it was thought to "dry out" the victim's insides.
She goes on to say,
<p>...tools for this procedure included a tube, a fumigator, and bellows. One end of the tube was inserted into the victim's rectum and the bellows pumped to send smoke into the person's body. In the event that all the tools were not readily available, a tobacco pipe has been known to have been used. This sometimes led to fatal consequences for the person doing the blowing </p><p> </p>
I know, I gagged, too. The idea is so gross. Imagine being the doctors who were delivering that treatment. No way. At that point, I would have chosen another profession.
Who was the first doctor to use tobacco smoke enemas?
First used on drowning victims, according to Wikipedia,
Richard Mead was among the first Western scholars to recommend tobacco smoke enemas to resuscitate victims of drowning, when in 1745 he recommended tobacco glysters to treat iatrogenic drowning caused by immersion therapy.
Which came first, tobacco smoke enema or mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?
Even though it seems so strange to think that a doctor would think of blowing tobacco smoke up ones butt before they thought of blowing oxygen in one's mouth to get them to breath again, the butt was first. [atlasobscura.com]
See when doctors literally blew smoke up butts
Need more convincing that actually blowing smoke up someone's butt was use as a legit medical treatment, here is more proof.
I think we can all agree that we are so happy this isn't a thing anymore.
All I can say is, I wouldn't what to do it and I wouldn't want it done to me, either. Wonder what medical procedures, today, will be looked upon as gross and quite possibly barbaric, tomorrow.
Goosebumps and other bodily reactions, explained
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