The Covert Family Website

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Riot Act

I subscribed to a neat email mailing list a bit ago called ”A Phrase A Week”.  As it sounds, each week this website sends you the historical story behind some common phrase.  Just the kinds of etymological anecdotes I love.  Well this week’s phrase was “Riot Act”.  Here’s a snippet from the email.  If you dig this kind of thing, be sure to sign up.

Since the early 19th century we have used ‘read the riot act’ as a figurative phrase to describe attempts to calm groups of rowdies - along the same lines as ‘you noisy louts, don’t you know there are people in here trying to sleep?’. It wasn’t always so. Had we been ‘reading the riot act’ in 1715 we would have noticed capital letters. At that date there was a real Riot Act and it was frequently read in public.

While writing this short blurb, I also ran across what’s probably another good reference: The Online Etymology Dictionary.  Isn’t the internet great sometimes.

         - Jake