Mrs. Figg's 'Cat among the Pixies'

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 93678

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "theadimail" <theadimail at y...> 
wrote:

adi:
> Hi,
>   All this talk about "cat among pigeons" reminds me that the most 
> unexplored part of potterverse is their sayings and idioms. You can 
> say they are slight twists on normal muggle idioms but they are a 
> delight to read and in they are so many of them in the fifth book. 
> I'd been hoping somebody would kind of group them up at a single 
> place. I am always noting them down and forgetting them again.
>  Like from "Gulpin'gargoyles" to Mrs.Figg's "...dragon as for an 
> egg"(can't remember the start of it, sorry.)
>   Anyway, one phrase which I didn't understand perfectly was 
> Mundungus Fletcher's "keep your hairnet on". Can someone explain 
> what that might mean?

Geoff:
Many of these, as you say, are JKR's take on standard UK English 
sayings. "We might as well be hanged for a dragon as an egg" is a 
variant on "we might as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb", 
meaning that something fairly small has happened but is now developng 
into something much bigger where we have to take further, more 
extreme, action which may well be dangerous or open to question......

"Keep your 'airnet on" is just modified from "Keep your hair on"  
which is enjoining an irritated listener to cool it, to calm down.