Origin of Phrases - T
Taken Down A Notch
It comes from the way people used to be ranked. Ships, for instance, used to be classified by colored pegs, which were based on the honor that the ship had gained through the years. As other ships earned their reputations, their pegs' colors were changed, sometimes knocking a ship down a notch. One of the earliest known uses of this expression is from the 1589 John Lyly story, Pappe with an Hatchet: "Now haue at you all my gaffers of the rayling religion, tis I that must take you a peg lower."