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More _____ than you can shake a stick at. Whats that about? I know what it means but been trying to think where it might have come from, can't imagine anyone measuring the size/quantity of something by shaking a stick at it and thinking, nah there's too much/its too big. 😉
There's lots more funny ones I can't think of right now!
It came from the fertile imagination of some English speaker a long time ago.
Not every phrase has to have a specific derivation, some can just be made up. I quite like it. I mean if you shake a stick over there, then you miss all the stuff over there - it works.
It would seem no-one knows. Dates back to the early 1800's at least.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sha2.htm