This venerable expression appeared in another thread and reminded me.
Can anyone say where the expression, “Put a sock in it” originated?
Best wishes,
Jerry
http://www.idiomsite.com/putasock.htm
Put a sock in it is a request to be quiet. Early gramophones had no volume controls. To play them more quietly you would have to put a sock into the trumpet.
Hmmm… nothing to do with Bill Clinton, then… how disappointing.
First I ever heard it was on the TV show Happy Days.
Or was that go sit on it?
Perhaps both.
Mike
Even though he had a volume control people still kept putting … oh … never mind.
According to the grandson (on NPR recently) of the founder of Victor, the early gramophone company, a sock was actually supplied with the gramophone for the purpose.
Best wishes,
Jerry
. . . and what’s the name of the dog, who’s listening to His Master’s Voice?
(Old Victrola ads and the current RCA logo, I think.)
Stuart
That would be Nipper.
Interesting story there:
http://www2.danbbs.dk/~erikoest/nipper.htm
Best wishes,
Jerry
Actually, the idiom “put a sock in it” is a corruption of a much older idiom: "put a sock on it, which is still preserved by some, as in:
stoner wrote (in another thread):
I take it to be what it says it is, nothing more.
If Dale wants us to > put a sock on it> ,
he would say so, I reckon.
Personally, I find the older, original idiom more colorful. An interesting experiment is to simply substitute the original idiom for the modern, corrputed version. English prepositional usage can be a minefield for the unwary, however.
What evidence, sir, do you have that “on” is the original idiom?
Just curious. 
Actually, if you do a WWW search, the implication is that the phrase with “on” is a corruption of the one with “in.” Looking for “put a sock on it” yields a lot of sites that sell condoms, actually, and one interesting one about some wacky remedy for earaches. Looking for “put a sock in it” yields several sites that discuss the idiom and its origins as a way to mute something, including a grammophone.
Stuart
If you asked me to put a sock on it, I’d take you to be asking me to oblige you with a right hook. Well, in my case, perhaps a left hook. 
Do I hear a limerick in there somewhere?
Well, my curiousity is satisfied! I am disappointed about one thing though-I always thought that Nipper was a smooth Fox Terrier, like my dog (name of Inspector Clouseau).
You don’t see Fox Terriers all that much any more, and when people asked me what breed he is I always replied that he’s the same breed as the RCA Victor dog.
Hmmm…socks are very useful (in tandem with duct tape, of course) when my “clients” become mouthy or start crying. In the former case, it’s usually what they want. In the latter, it’s an expedient. Can’t get good slave-toys these days. Hmph.
Anyway, that’s where I thought the turn of phrase came from.
Did someone invite the leather queens or did they just turn up?
While we are at it, what’s the origin of “on the fritz”? As in, “I’d put a sock in my grammophone, but what’s the point? The damn thing is on the fritz, anyway.”
Apologies to Herr Blümenfeldt, but I understand that this phrase came about from a time when imported items of German manufacture were considered substandard and prone to breakdowns --if you can imagine that!
First of all, it’s Herr von Blümenfeldt, and second of all I cannot imagine that. 
Which reminds me, Herr von Blümenfeldt:
It’s been said that heaven would have English police, German engineers, and French cooks; hell would have German police, French engineers, and English cooks.
sigh How times have changed.
It started as “Put a sock in it”,
But evolved to “put a sock on it.”
To cover their willy
When men got too chilly
But maybe we’d better ask vomit (bunny).
