Mind your own business

The phrase appears in St. Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians in the fourth chapter:

11 'that you also aspire to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you'.^[1]

Some modern theologians do not believe that the phrase "Mind your own business" is of direct biblical derivation, though something similar appears in the Bible where St. Paul tells the church of Thessaloniki about this manner of living in his instructions as a way of Christian life (I Thessalonians 4:11). The Greek phrase is πράσσειν τὰ ἴδια, which translates as "manage yourself".^[2]

The first of coins, minted by the United States under The Coinage Act of 1792, display the words “Mind Your Business” on one side.

In the 1930s, a slang version rendered the saying as "Mind your own beeswax". It is meant to soften the force of the retort.^[3] Folk etymology has it that this idiom was used in the colonial period when women would sit by the fireplace making wax candles together,^[4] though there are many other theories.^[5]

In the classic science fiction story "...And Then There Were None", author Eric Frank Russell shortened "Mind your own business" to "MYOB" or "Myob!", which was used as a form of civil disobedience on the planet of the libertarian Gands.^[6] Russell's short story was subsequently incorporated into his 1962 novel The Great Explosion.

Discover more about 20th century related topics

Slang

Slang

Slang is vocabulary of an informal register, common in verbal conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-groups in order to establish group identity, exclude outsiders, or both. The word itself came about in the 18th century and has been defined in multiple ways since its conception.

Beeswax

Beeswax

Beeswax is a natural wax produced by honey bees of the genus Apis. The wax is formed into scales by eight wax-producing glands in the abdominal segments of worker bees, which discard it in or at the hive. The hive workers collect and use it to form cells for honey storage and larval and pupal protection within the beehive. Chemically, beeswax consists mainly of esters of fatty acids and various long-chain alcohols.

Folk etymology

Folk etymology

Folk etymology is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a more familiar one. The form or the meaning of an archaic, foreign, or otherwise unfamiliar word is reinterpreted as resembling more familiar words or morphemes.

Eric Frank Russell

Eric Frank Russell

Eric Frank Russell was a British writer best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and other pulp magazines. Russell also wrote horror fiction for Weird Tales and non-fiction articles on Fortean topics. Up to 1955 several of his stories were published under pseudonyms, at least Duncan H. Munro and Niall(e) Wilde.

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is the active, professed refusal of a citizen to obey certain laws, demands, orders or commands of a government. By some definitions, civil disobedience has to be nonviolent to be called "civil". Hence, civil disobedience is sometimes equated with peaceful protests or nonviolent resistance.

The Great Explosion

The Great Explosion

The Great Explosion is a satirical science fiction novel by English writer Eric Frank Russell, first published in 1962. The story is divided into three sections. The final section is based on Russell's 1951 short story "...And Then There Were None". Twenty-three years after the novel was published, it won a Prometheus Hall of Fame Award.