A wigwam for a goose's bridle

A wigwam for a goose's bridle is a phrase, once popular in Australia, meaning "none of your business". A common usage is in response to an inquiry such as Q. "What are you making?", A. "A wigwam for a goose's bridle".[1] The rejoinder was a code for "Mind your own business" and children acquired this pragmatic knowledge after repeated discourse with their parents ended with this response.[2] It was a common family saying.[3]

The phrase was also in use in New Zealand[4] and more generally by English speakers, for example in an 1836 magazine article referring to Calcutta and an exchange with a sailor.[5]

Originally, the phrase was "a whim-wham for a goose's bridle", with "whim-wham" a word meaning "a fanciful or fantastic object". The phrase was deliberately absurd as a goose would never wear a bridle. Folk etymology converted the word "whim-wham"—a word that was no longer much used—to "wigwam", an Ojibwa word for a domed single-room dwelling used by Native Americans. This change retained the phrase's absurd meaning and sense.[6]

The phrase is believed to be less popular than it once was.[7]

Other variations of this phrase are:

References

  1. Seal, Graham (1999). The Lingo: Listening to Australian English. UNSW Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-86840-680-0. Retrieved 13 June 2008.
  2. Wajnryb, Ruth (2008). Cheerio Tom, Dick and Harry: Despatches from the Hospice of Fading Words. Allen & Unwin. p. 79. ISBN 978-1-74114-993-7. Retrieved 13 June 2008.
  3. "Fish Trout: Children's Folklore". National Library of Australia. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2008.
  4. "Tony Beyer". Manukau in Poetry. Manukau Libraries. Archived from the original on 14 October 2008. Retrieved 13 June 2008.
  5. Walsh, Robert; Eliakim Littell; John Jay Smith (2005) [1836]. "Scene in Calcutta". Museum of Foreign Literature, Science and Art. Philadelphia: E Little. p. 590. First published in The New Monthly Magazine
  6. Ludowyk, Frederick. "All my eye and Betty Martin! The folk etymology of some popular idioms". OzWords. Australian National University : Australian National Dictionary Centre (October 1996). Retrieved 13 June 2008.
  7. Chesterton, Ray (9 October 2006). "Aussie lingo facing extinction". News Ltd. Retrieved 13 June 2008.
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