Etymology Journal · W
Who woke up on the wrong side of the bed?
Meaning
- A gentle way to identify someone as being in a bad mood. It attributes their irritability to a poor start to the morning rather than a deep-seated personality flaw.
Playful, empathetic
Used in a sentence
- You seem a bit irritable today, who woke up on the wrong side of the bed?
- I apologize if I am acting grumpy; I must have woken up on the wrong side of the bed.
- The whole team was silent, so I asked, who woke up on the wrong side of the bed?
The backstory
This dates back to ancient Rome, where it was considered bad luck to put your left foot on the floor first when getting out of bed. The superstition stuck in various forms.
Heard in
Nationwide
Vibe check