My own opinion only. "Cut the Mustard" is an Americanism. From around the 1890s to 1900. Can be positive or negative. ie. "To cut the mustard" means to come up to expectations. Can't cut the mustard means, not able to come up to standard. From my own pugilistic days, I believe "To come up to scratch". Derived from the days of bare knuckle fighting. Where the number of rounds depended on the number of times an opponent hit the dirt ring area. To start the fight, a line was drawn between the two protagonist. This was known as the mark or scratch. If during the contest one fighter was unable to get back to the scratch or mark then, the opponent was declared the winner, as the other was unable to get back to the scratch or mark. For the past 100 years this has been replaced by a ringside bell, operated by a timekeeper. I believe this was British terminology. My Great Uncle was a bare knuckle pugilist. He fought all over South Africa in the 1890s. He went by the name of Gem (Jim) Turner. He is mentioned in a book by Chris Gravenstein, called "The Fighters." Seamus: (Tout รก fait Chevalier) All mail scanned by Norton AV 2002 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Chris & Caroline" <chris@chayles.freeserve.co.uk> To: <HAMPSHIRE-LIFE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2003 9:09 PM Subject: [HantsLife] Sayings Do any of the members know where the saying:- ''Cut the mustard'' originated?. I know the meaning, up to scratch, ha!, there's another one!, I believe they are ''Americanisms''. Chris and Caroline --- All of our Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. And attachments are also scanned before being added. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.449 / Virus Database: 251 - Release Date: 27/01/2003 ==== HAMPSHIRE-LIFE Mailing List ==== Visit Where your ancestors lived..... SOUTHERN LIFE(UK) http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~villages AND VI ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237