Genealogy, but not in the strictest sense of the word.

So while indulging in one of my early morning skype chats with the wonderful M today (although we don’t tell him to his face he is wonderful, but early in the morning not much is in my opinion) I used the expression ‘daft as a brush’ (I was referring to him and I stand by my description). We are both remarkable good at going off on tangents and, instead of continuing our previous topic, pondered the origins of this phrase. I mean brushes aren’t daft, they are functional and bristly. Of course I turned to google as I often do in these situations. Here are my findings… (I feel I need some dramatic music in here to set the mood)

Those of us that hail from ol’ Blighty, and maybe some that don’t, know that in Victorian times little kids were used as chimney sweeps as they could climb up into the chimney and sweep out all the dirt. Apparently this was quite a skill (I know it was easy to get lost and stuff in the big flues) and the apprentices were not trusted to climb up but were instead dropped down the chimney head first, interesting training technique indeed. At this point I should say I feel the whole thing becomes a little unlikely but it came from several sources and I found no better explanation of the phrase’s origin so I shall soldier on. This ’sky dive’ apparently resulted in head trama (who would have thought it?) and let’s face it some mental and behavioural issues as a result. The brushes went daft. Voila! I do wonder why when we call them chimney sweeps we say daft as a brush not daft as a sweep but that is something for another day.

What pleases me about this whole thing though is that is explains something else to me - Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (aka the worst attempt at a cockney accent ever). I am quite willing to accept his performance was a result of being dropped on his head too many times as a child.