If you’re too tired to wiggle, you’re tired indeed. This expression goes back at least as far as the early 1900s. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Too Tired to Wiggle”
Monty Belton writes, I used the phrase too tired to wiggle in an email this week and had a couple people comment on it. I assumed it came from my Oklahoma heritage and I’ve seen it in letters dating back to 1917, but I can’t find the origin. Can you help? I love that too tired to wiggle.
And Grant, I couldn’t find much in the way of origins, but I think it’s probably just literal, right?
Right.
Yeah, you can’t move. There’s just no energy left, nothing left to give.
Yeah, it’s like the smallest unit of movement, I guess. I found it in a 1902 newspaper, but really no good context for it. But that’s another phrase I’m going to adopt, too tired to wiggle.
I know that feeling.
Yeah, on the spectrum of tired, that’s like right after a sleep.
Right. Well, we hope you’re not too tired to wiggle a finger and call us 877-929-9673.
