When you purchase a book through an Amazon link, Sloww earns a small percentage at no additional cost to you. This helps fund the costs to support the site and the ad-free experience. Your email address will not be published. Skip to content Skip to footer. But, does anyone know why we say it, or where it came from?
That explanation is plausible but, as we see so often, plausibility isn't enough when it comes to etymology. The fact that the expression 'keeping up with the Joneses' isn't found until Momand began his comic strip and is found numerous times thereafter deals a death blow to the Hudson Valley social scene explanation. Like so many names that appear in commonplace phrases , the Joneses weren't real people but generic stereotypes.
Is this an idiom you have used before? Do you know what it means? To keep up with the Joneses refers to competitiveness between people. It means not falling behind your neighbor in terms of their material possessions and, in order to achieve this, buying whatever your neighbor has and doing what they do. If they paint their house, then you should too, etc. The list is endless and refers to every possession, activity like going on holidays etc.
In The Cleanup Idea , published in The Denison Review Denison, Iowa of 27 th May , it is difficult to ascertain whether it is the idiomatic expression that is used or whether in order to keep up with the Joneses is due to an arbitrary choice of the common family names Jones and Brown :.
The Iowa state board of health by proclamation has declared the week of May 4 th cleanup and paint up week in Iowa […]. Cleanliness is contagious. The man who might let his place go to rack and ruin if he were on a desert island will hump himself to prevent his neighbor from outdoing him in improving the premises. In few lines of activity is a good example such a powerful factor. If Mrs. Jones has an attractive flower garden, Mrs.
Brown is more than likely to suggest to Mr.
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