SAVE ONE'S BACON

To 'save one's bacon is to escape from injury ; to avoid harm, especially to one's body. By bacon,we normally mean the cured and dried meat taken from the backed or sides of apig.To the medieval mind, 'bacon' was meat from anywhere on the body of the animal, more akin to what we now call pork.This was the origin of the slang term 'bacon' was simply saving your body from harm.The expression was used that way as early as the 17th century as, for example,this extract from ireland's Momus Elenticus,1654: "Some fellowes there were... To save their bacon penn'd many a smooth song. For more details visit their site secondpen.com.