In a moody, grumpy state of mind. This expression dates from ancient times, when it was believed to be extremely bad luck to put the left foot down first. Supposedly Augustus Caesar, the Roman emperor, was exceedingly superstitious about this practice. It was still regarded as a bad omen in the seventeenth century, when the expression appeared in several plays (William Congreve’s Love for Love; Ben Jonson’s Tale of a Tub; Aphra Behn’s Town-Fop: “Sure I rose the wrong way today. I have such damned ill luck”). By the nineteenth century, however, it specifically became a sign of churlishness and ill temper. “Thou art angry this morning . . . hath risen from thy wrong side, I think,” wrote Sir Walter Scott (Redgauntlet, 1824).