Six feet under

[barmy]

What is the origin of "Six feet under" and why 6 feet?

Thanks

[Clanad]

Our friends at Word Detective have this to say:

"While "six feet under" meaning "dead and buried" (from the standard grave depth of six feet) might seem the source of "deep six," it actually began as a nautical term. In the days before sonar, soundings of the water's depth were taken by the "leadman" with a weighted line marked in fathoms (a unit equaling six feet). A leadman's cry of "six deep" or "by the deep six" meant six fathoms (36 feet), or quite a bit of water, beneath the keel. Since something jettisoned into six fathoms of water was unlikely to ever be seen again, by the early 20th century "deep six" had come to mean "to get rid of" something, especially by putting it where it could never be found."

[Avatar]

But what about the origin of 'six feet under' and why six feet?

[CheekyChops]

Because the dead are traditionally buried 6 feet down in a grave, so you are 'six feet under' when you are dead!

They probably chose six feet becasue there needed to be room in the grave to bury others if required and six feet was deep enough whilst leaving room for another burial on top.

[ImLostAgain]

A grave digger I know (a real happy chap) told me it was the minimum depth that scavenging animals cannot smell the corpse.

[don1]

I watched documentary the other night which influenced how deep people were buried


In the early 19th century grave robbing was a very lucrative business, grave robbers could dig up 4 corpses per night in a two hour period to sell to pathology departments and make a years pay for two hours work.

Strangely, back then this was not against the law, and what made it so easy for them was that bodies were only buried 6 inches below the surface, so relatives started insisting that their loved ones were buried 6 feet down to stop this body snatching vermin from getting at the corpse.

[Quizmonster]

However old the tradition of burying bodies at that depth may be, the actual phrase, 'six feet under', originated as a bit of American slang only in the 1940s!