I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole

Okay, by now you should know that I’m an idiot foridioms.  I like finding out what phrasesmean and where they came from.

I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole  . . . an expression I’ve been saying all mylife.  Well, I said it the other day and soI says to myself . . . “I wonder where that came from”.   So here it is.

I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole is an expressionthat means you don’t want to have anything whatsoever to do with whatever it isyou don’t want to touch with said pole.   This is actually adapted from the British saying . . .  I would not touch it with a bargepole. 

Who amongst you knows what a bargepole is . . .  

A bargepole is simply a long wooden pole that is used topush barges along.  A barge pole just sohappens to be an average of 10 – 12 feet in length.  A ten-foot pole is just barge-pole by anothername.

I'd assumed that the ten-foot pole version appeared becausemost people wouldn't know a barge-pole from a hole in the road.