Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Adjective Phrase 28. The adjective phrase
today is Six Feet Under. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here.
If someone says that another person is Six Feet Under,
it means that person is dead and buried. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here.
The origin of this phrase goes all the way back to the Black Plague. The Mayor
of London you know, at that time had enacted a law to bury bodies at least
six feet under the ground to limit the spread of the plague. So that's the first
time that six feet was actually mentioned. Okay. This thinking turned out
to be incorrect because the disease spread by fleas usually spread before a
body was dead and buried and it was ended. So they ended up ending this for a
while. However it was brought back in the 1800s.
So however in the 1800's, there was a demand for dead bodies due to training
medical doctors. I don't know maybe they started making a lot more medical
advances and they had a lot more medical students and they needed more dead
bodies and there were many grave robbers being paid to produce the dead bodies
and this was a problem. So they ... brought back six feet to make it more
difficult for the grave robbers to rob the graves because it's a lot further
that they have to dig down. Okay. Good. progress was being made. Thus the law was
reversed back to six feet. Like today in our present time in the US. it varies
from state to state , but six feet is still usually kept as an old habit and
standard. So some could be a lot less I've heard it you know it could be even
as little as two feet, but you know, probably want to be at least that or
further down to make sure that the the odor of the decaying body cannot come
through. Okay. All right. Anyway, let's continue
here. Let's look at two examples. Just to see how it's used. You should be
careful if you become a whistleblower and produce state evidence, you may end
up six feet under. Yeah if you're testifying against somebody you know
somebody who's powerful and has connections you know, they may send
somebody to have something happen to you. So you could end up six feet under.
Or number two here. if you don't give up smoking three packs of cigarettes a day
you may end up six feet under at an early age. So in that sense it's actually
used in kind of a humorous way. To be you know, death is usually not humorous , but
this is one way to kind of make it or ease it , so that it's not so bad. Okay.
Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it was clear. Thank you for your time. Bye-bye.