👉 Okay, settle in closely, class. Let’s tackle something that frankly, I wish we didn't need to discuss: the wonderfully unfortunate saying - and honestly, it's a
sticky
one – of "07 up."
Now, before you immediately freak out about my phrasing (seriously, I'm careful here! It's for explanatory purposes only!), let’s unpack this. Historically, and believe me, there are some wonderfully bleak layers to the origin here, it essentially meant a very specific, rather brutal act of humiliation. Think of a young man in the late 18th and early 20th centuries, particularly during military drills, who was subjected, as a punishment, to being trousered, or “brought up on the point of his breech." That is, he'd be physically positioned with his trousers bunched very tightly around his groin. It meant absolute, concentrated shame and awkwardness. You can, frankly, imagine how profoundly embarrassing that would have been! The numerical designation, "07," came from the number of paces one was forced to take while maintaining that mortifying position. Hence, you were being, quite literally, brought up on the point of your breech for 07 paces, and then told to sit down. It's not pretty. The whole thing felt a bit like a prolonged, public flogging of the posterior. Now, it hasn’t exactly gone mainstream. You
