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This is the Keep Your English Up to Date podcast from BBClearning English.com.

In this week's programme, John Aetto explores the origin meaning and use of the phrase early doors.

They try to play a very physical game and get on top of you early doors.

That comes from a report on a football match I read recently. Early doors? What's that all about?

It means at an early stage in the proceedings. But why doors? Where did that come from?

Nobody knows for certain, but the best guess is that it originally referred to theatres, musicals and similar places

opening their doors in advance of the time when the advertised entertainment was due to begin.

Customers who slipped in then had a was due to begin.

Customers who slipped in then had a much better choice of seats than people who left it to the last moment.

So from the outset, early doors implied gaining an advantage by taking action at the first opportunity.

Another strand in the phrase history may be that until recently pubs in Britain had to close during the afternoon

so there'd be quite a rush for the bar when the doors reopened around 5 o'clock.

But wherever it came from it seems to have reached a wider audience thanks to sports commentaries on television. It came to be

associated especially with the outspoken British television soccer pundit Ron

Atkinson, who could be relied on to use the phrase at least once a match. And now it seems to be popping up all over the place, including

non-supporting contexts, as in she had a bad cold and retired to bed early doors, so much so that it's become something of a

cliche.

That was the Keep Your English Up to Date podcast.

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