Have You Ever Wondered Why

... reprimanding someone is called "reading him the riot act"?

"Our sovereign Lord the king chargeth and commandeth all persons being assembled immediately to disperse themselves and
peacefully to depart to their habitations or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year
of King George for preventing tumultuous and riotous assemblies. God save the King".

The above proclamation is the Riot Act as enacted in 1715 by the British Parliament under George I. Or, More correctly, it
is what the Riot Act says must be read by the sheriff or mayor to disperse unlawful assemblages.

This is what reading the Riot Act originally meant. Today, of course, it has been distorted to mean giving anyone a severe reprimand.

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