Sayings from the Old Country

[Bullitt]

From my dad: "Just be thankful we don't get all the government we pay for."

[Sundae]

Originally Posted by footfootfoot

My mom's mum (from Rearsby, Leicestershire if that is, in fact, a real place) used to write in her diary "Fell off my bike" as a euphemism for getting drunk.

I refer you to this post! Yes, Rearsby is not only a real place, but I have been there. And my adored and emigrated Ngiri friend Emma (is that searchable enough?) hs family connections there.

My Mum's specials:
Acting the goat (silliness or bad manners leading to injury)
Polly Long Frock (used especially in the 80s when skirts were ankle length and she disapproved)
Pratty Anna (foolishness, clumsiness)

And from the Irish side
Gommie (equivilant to spastic or downs' syndrome - sorry)
Eejit - idiot, but could be said with more distain
Jeanie Mac - no idea who she was, but instead of blaspheming - draws out nicely with long slow syllables

[Blib27]

In reply to "who you looking at?"

"A cat can look at a Queen".

My mum used to say that.

[squirell nutkin]

Originally Posted by Sundae

I refer you to this post! Yes, Rearsby is not only a real place, but I have been there. And my adored and emigrated Ngiri friend Emma (is that searchable enough?) hs family connections there.

Good lord you have a memory!

[casimendocina]

[Subject] has to pull their socks up (on shoddy performance).

[DanaC]

Do you guys use the phrase 'on tenterhooks' to denote anticipation?

[casimendocina]

Absolutely. Used it just last week.

[casimendocina]

I used the phrase "jolly hockey sticks" this morning in conversation with a Canadian who had never heard of it. Would it be a strange expression for someone in the UK who hasn't read boarding school stories?

[DanaC]

No, that's a well-known phrase used to describe a particular kind of upper-class girl or woman. Usually slightly derogatory, it suggests someone with that particular kind of well-bred, jolly enthusiasm and zeal, but not that bright.

[Trilby]

Dana - you mean tenderhooks, right? Is it tenterhooks??

[DanaC]

Tenterhooks. :p

[DanaC]

From wiki:

Tenterhooks were used as far back as the fourteenth century in the process of making woollen cloth. After the cloth was woven it still contained oil from the fleece and some dirt. A fuller (also called a tucker or walker) cleaned the woollen cloth in a fulling mill, and then had to dry it carefully or the wool would shrink. To prevent this shrinkage, the fuller would place the wet cloth on a large wooden frame, a "tenter", and leave it to dry outside. The lengths of wet cloth were stretched on the tenter (from the Latin "tendere", to stretch) using hooks (nails driven through the wood) all around the perimeter of the frame to which the cloth's edges (selvedges) were fixed so that as it dried the cloth would retain its shape and size.[1] At one time it would have been common in manufacturing areas to see tenter-fields full of these frames.

By the mid-eighteenth century the phrase "on tenterhooks" came into use to mean being in a state of uneasiness, anxiety, or suspense, stretched like the cloth on the tenter. [2]

There's a collection of streets and roads near me which is called 'Tenter Fields'. Probably built where the old wool drying fields once were.

[Trilby]

well, I'll be dipped in shit. I learned something new today!

thanks, prof. DanaC.

I always wondered about tenderhooks - I mean, tender? Right? makes no sense...

[classicman]

tenderfoot...

Oh wait - wrong thread

[Pico and ME]

Ive not seen more than 5 minutes of it.