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> The colloquial phrase put that in your pipe and smoke it and its variants mean accept or put up with what has been said or done, even if it is unwelcome. Int

• TimTheTinker 5y ago
  I always read it as a poking-fun variant of "booyah!"
  • colecut 5y ago
    Which is of Hebrew origin and shares roots with the African "Boomshakalaka!"
    • carschno 5y ago
      Can you elaborate? I couldn't find anything toegang, but googling this without more information is hard. For starters, what does "African" refer to?
      • TimTheTinker 5y ago
        I think he or she is joking.
• pbhjpbhj 5y ago
  Where I grew up in England it was the polite version of "well you can just shove it up your arse". Maybe the meaning has moved on because "smoke" as meaning consider has been lost, or perhaps it was a local variation. Just checked with my partner, they're from half the country away from where I'm from and they agree.
  • OJFord 5y ago
    (From the South West) I agree it can be like that, but I also think the quoted bit is fair - to me it doesn't have to be adversarial 'ha, take that!' it can be more 'eesh, I'm on your side but ugh, what a blow'.
  • GordonS 5y ago
    Scotland checking in! I've always understood it the same way. Checked with my partner from half this country away, and she agrees too.
  • mxxx 5y ago
    Yep same in Australia
  • rorykoehler 5y ago
    I’m from Ireland and always thought it meant “tough luck, deal with it”
    • emmelaich 5y ago
      'deal' itself seems to have a different meaning depending on the country In the USA it seems to mean 'cope' or put up with. In Australia / UK it means do something about it.
      • stordoff 5y ago
        I'm not sure that's the regional split. I'm in the UK, and hear it being using in both senses: "You should deal with it / I'll deal with it" - do something to solve the problem "Yeah, deal with it!" - dismissively, put up with it I don't know if the latter came from the American usage, but I certainly hear it used.
        • j4yav 5y ago
          The US also has these exact same two usages.
      • mattkrause 5y ago
        It's even weirder than that. With an unspecified subject "deal with it", it does mean "put up with" or abide. However, if your boss told you that "We haven't been paid yet; deal with it!", odds are good that you're expected to be on the phone or otherwise chasing down the tardy clients.
        • thaumasiotes 5y ago
          What's weird about it? This is true of essentially all words.
          • mattkrause 5y ago
            Could you share some other examples? The only thing that came to mind is "bite/eat it" (i.e., fall), and there "it" is presumably the dirt/snow/pavement/etc that the person fell onto. The "it" in "hit it" and "cool it" seems to refer to the on-going action/attitude too, even if it's not precisely specified.
  • IggleSniggle 5y ago
    Over in Midwest USA, it always meant, usually (but not always) adversarially, “so you can ponder THAT all night, and no matter how much you think about it, will change neither the facts nor the conclusion.” The only local color I have to add is that it was also somewhat normal to hear “put that in your peace pipe and smoke it” and also “so you can shove that in your peace pipe, and smoke it,” both being references to the custom among some Native North American nations to share a “peace pipe” as a kind of diplomatic gesture, but turned on its head. This had the effect of me always believing and perceiving it as (usually) especially sarcastic, but largely deriving from the exact meaning that it originates from, even if the cultural reasons were obfuscated.
  • thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > Where I grew up in England it was the polite version of "well you can just shove it up your arse". Maybe the meaning has moved on That's the meaning I'm familiar with in the US. Jonathan Coulton's song Not About You [also American] makes it quite explicit that those two phrases in particular are synonymous. https://www.jonathancoulton.com/store/ https://www.jonathancoulton.com/store/
• leoc 5y ago
  "ponder (and put up with!) what has been said or done, even if it is unwelcome" would be a more correct definition. It's basically equivalent to the Americanism "chew on that". It can be pretty neutral or quite hostile, depending on how unhappy you think the listener is going to be with the news. I'm not sure why this caught HN's interest to be honest, but it's no harm. If you want more, you can read P.W. Joyce: https://archive.org/details/englishaswespeak00joycuoft/ https://archive.org/details/englishaswespeak00joycuoft/
  • mc32 5y ago
    Pretty much. Where I grew up it was more or less equivalent to "ain't that a bitch!" The boss cut our hours and gave them to his cousin! (Now put that in your pipe and smoke it)
• shard 5y ago
  To me, "put that in your pipe and smoke it" has a sense of rubbing in that the listener was incorrect, so it has the same connotation as "eat crow" or "how do you like them apples?".
  • bigyikes 5y ago
    Yes, in my mind it has exactly the same meaning as “how do you like them apples?” When I was a teenager my cousin hit me with a new one that I kind of like: “put that in your juice box and suck on it”
• geenew 5y ago
  I've understood it similarly, as a statement made after introducing a piece of evidence or an arguable assertion. The meaning of the phrase itself being a demand that the listener reconsider their position in light of the newly introduced facts.