Where did that saying come from?
I found out when looking into the term “tomboy” that a “tom” was a term for a boisterous and unruly boy. The word “tom” does come from tomcat as others have said because unneutered tomcats are often loud and unruly. I suspect Peeping Tom has a similar “tom” origin: an unruly boy that peeps on girls.
He was (apocryphal) the only villager that watched Lady Godiva take her ride through town.
Wikipedia link (to the Peeping Tom section).
I don’t know how he even saw anything. I heard she was in a racing car, passing by
Defying the laws of gravity?
So the only straight man in the village
That’s Tom from MySpace. Everyone got added as his friend so he could peep on anyone he wanted
Peeping Tom, being Frank, Ruthless, smart Alec. I like to think that each saying started out with a particularly notable person.
I guess like the Goths, the Franks were a barbarian tribe, who were presumably reasonably direct and… frank, compared to sophisticated imperial types.
You jest, but you’re not far off.
In Frankish Gaul, only Franks had full freedom, and so “franc” from Old French and “francus” from medieval Latin meant “free”, which eventually took on a few more specific meanings, one of which was “speaking freely” (as in “open, honest”). Another meaning is found in the phrase “franking privileges,” which refers to politicians being able to send items in the mail without being charged for them - the items are “free” to be delivered.
Aha! I’ve always wondered why office postage meters are called franking machines.
That’s exactly it - when a piece of mail with a stamp on it is “canceled” by stamping something on it with ink, yes, that prevents the stamp from being reused, but it is also the sign from the postmaster that the mail may be delivered, having been appropriately paid for.
The cancellation stamp is a franking mark.
Maybe a tomcat?
Tom is a cat that is always peeping on Jerry
Jerry is the villain
it came from the term “tomcat”, meaning a male cat.
