While I love this, I can’t pass up the opportunity to explain “pop goes the weasel”.
The song references the cost of food items in its first verse, followed by “that’s the way the money goes, pop goes the weasel”. What exactly a weasel was is up for debate; it could be rhyming slang for a coat, or it could mean the pre-electric type of iron that was heated on a stove before use on clothing. In any case, “pop” was slang for pawning an item for money.
“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.
While I love this, I can’t pass up the opportunity to explain “pop goes the weasel”.
The song references the cost of food items in its first verse, followed by “that’s the way the money goes, pop goes the weasel”. What exactly a weasel was is up for debate; it could be rhyming slang for a coat, or it could mean the pre-electric type of iron that was heated on a stove before use on clothing. In any case, “pop” was slang for pawning an item for money.
So weasel->stoat->coat?
“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.