American Phrases
It occurred to me whilst reading and contributing to the British phrases thread, that most of what we Brits (and probably other nations too) know of American phrases, comes to us through TV shows and movies. I am guessing that's a fairly narrow experience base. Given how different dialects and language use can be in such a small island as Britain, it stands to reason there's a bunch of innately American phrases that never make it to our tv screens, or that are used differently from one state to the next.
I am a huge fan of any books set in and around Maine, because I love the phrases used by the characters and the culture those books portray.
So.....Any of you Americans care to share any gems you think we might not have come across?
How about- I beat him like a rented mule; used interchangably with; beat him like a red-headed step child. Used in competitive situations not necessarily physical. Maybe they don't reflect well on our psyche?
beat him like a red-headed step child.
Oh my, that's great.
Just like the Brits in the Brit phrases thread, it's hard for me to work out what is distinctly American... and which American phrases are less known.
Just like the Brits in the Brit phrases thread, it's hard for me to work out what is distinctly American... and which American phrases are less known.
Stay the course.
"Y'all"
Also, I would guess that these are American: "Gotta pee like a racehorse," and "shotgun wedding."
was just wondering if " well.. fuck me running (down a gravel road) " had made it back across the pond
damn. I tell you.. culturally speaking since moving to the south I have had to learn soooooo many more phrases.. therein lies the problem with america.. it's too damn big.. too many regional dialects and phrases.. "all shot out" is a southern phrase meaning 'crazy but in a good way' (heh.. I've had a dozen people call me that, I take it as a compliment personally) still learning..helps that the g/f / neo-wife is a southerner and very intelligent so I can ask her what they mean in a 'northern'/'yankee' sense..
Hold my beer and watch this.
Shit through a tin horn.
Horny as a hoot owl.
:blush:
There's the classic "built like a brick shithouse", but who can figure how that one came to be.
That's used a lot in Britain.
In the Uk, a lot our phrases come from various sports: sticky wicket, horses for courses etc...... I guess the same is true of the US. We've all heard the 'three strikes and out' thingie (taken from your version of rounders, I believe) but I'm sure there are others....
In the Uk, a lot our phrases come from various sports: sticky wicket, horses for courses etc...... I guess the same is true of the US. We've all heard the 'three strikes and out' thingie (taken from your version of rounders, I believe) but I'm sure there are others....
three strikes and your out is from baseball. I have no clue what rounders is. My mother uses "pertnear" (don't know how to spell it) meaning close to. wow this is hard...hmmm. Yellow bellied snake is a bit outdated but sometimes used. Cows are sometimes referred to as "doggies." "Best in the west." is common when someone is bragging (although normally its in a joking way). Around here references to the street Harry Hines blvd has to do with prostitutes. Goin' muddin' is what the hicks do after it rains...they take their truck (normally) and find a muddy field to drive in. Drunk as a skunk...well i don't think explanation is needed. (unless you don't know what a skunk is). Vittles is food. Crackers are white people, beaners are mexicans, wetbacks are mexicans (pretty racist tho). I'll be back when I can think of some more.
is 'hook, line and sinker' also used in the US?
was just wondering if " well.. fuck me running (down a gravel road) " had made it back across the pond
Our version of that is "fuck me swinging" or "fuck me drunk" or even "fuck me backwards".....if youre feeling reaallly creative you could even go as far as "fuck me drunk whilst swinging backwards"....but you would almost need to be dying of incredation (I just made that up, but it sounds cool :p ) to use that little gem.
"silly wanker" used to be mainly Australian from what I gather.
"Flamin' Galah" is NOT used by any Australian barr Alf from Home and Away (aussie sitcom).
I personally dont know anyone who says "Crikey".
"Go root your boot"
Getting "pissed" is drunk.
"off his face" is also drunk (but very old school).
I'm sure there are a tonne more, but I cant think of them now.
Pomms - those English buggers
Yanks - those American buggers
the others are NOT PC that I refuse to mention them :)
Some Maine-risms:
"Jeezum Crow"
"Jeezum Crow bar" (pronounced crow-bah)
"I'll be jiggered up a hemlock"
"Can't get there from here"
Ahh, I'll think of more.
'Murrickin phrases:
Jonesing
BFE
boo-boo/owie
Another American (I think) phrase: "to bone up on" something, as in to study a subject intensely for some purpose.
The whole nine yards.
I always thought this was derived from football by someone who probably didn't last very long as a coach but found out a while back that it actually refers to the length of a string a bullets that you see guys feeding into a machine gun in WWII footage.
Balls to the wall.
Somebody's gonna have to help me out with this one. I have a feeling that this one might not have originated in America even though its used here a lot.
Freeze the balls of a brass monkey.
Colder than a witch's tit/heart.
Bumps on a log.
:litebulb:
i go through phases with sayings. i dont know if their origins are strictly american, but I'm a 'merican, and i heard them in America:
All the farts came out of the blanket: gotten to the truth of the matter
dumber than a bag of hair: self explanatory
tear that up! : i'd like to copulate vigorously with that person
i wouldn't fuck her with your dick: i'd prefer not to copulate with her because i fear contracting venerial disease
Oh Oh...
sticks out like dogs balls - thats really obvious
useless as a nun's nasty - not very helpful
useless as tits on a bull - not very helpful either
full as a fat ladies sock - gee, I think I've eaten too much
paper bag material - a person of not great appeal, who's only chance of getting laid would be whilst adorning a paper bag on their head
2 paper bag material - a really unappealing person, warranting the addition of a secondary paper bag, in case the first one would malfunction.
Originally Posted by DucksNuts
2 paper bag material - a really unappealing person, warranting the addition of a secondary paper bag, in case the first one would malfunction.
A double bagger - One for them and one for you just in case theirs falls off!
Freeze the balls of a brass monkey.
Colder than a witch's tit/heart.
Both of those are used in Britain, but are quite old fashioned. I think they come from around the 16th century, but I may be wrong.
Bone up on something, we use also.
"Can't get there from here". I love that. I can almost hear the Maine accent!
"Can't get there from here"
Also a great R.E.M. song, from 1985...
"Can't get there from here". I love that. I can almost hear the Maine accent!
"Can't get there from here" actually comes from an old vaudeville joke.
NYC is known for lots of one way streets and bizarre traffic regulations. So when the out of town gentleman rolls down the window of his car and asks a pedestrian for directions to City Hall, the local has to stop and think for a moment.
"Let's see. Go up two streets take a left then... No that's a one way in the wrong direction.
Try this. Go right here, down two streets then go... No you can't turn left there.
Alright. You'll have to go up three streets turn right and then... Wait. That only works after 6.
Sorry buddy. You can't get there from here."
Here's a couple:
"Can I fix you some lunch?" -- fix == prepare
In the US, when someone is pissed (or pissed off), he's not drunk, he's angry.
We say pissed to mean drunk and pissed off for angry. :P
Fix we also use, but that's very regional.
In the South, we say "fixin' to" meaning "about to" or, roughly, "preparing to" - as in "I'm fixin' to post this..."
Fix we also use, but that's very regional.
Really? I used that phrase with a young Scottish woman and she had never heard it.
How about "bought the farm"?
aheh. like I say, it's very regional. I've heard it used as in "Can I fix you a drink?"
Bought the farm. I love that one. I'd like to know the derivation of that phrase.
useless as tits on a bull - not very helpful either
2 paper bag material - a really unappealing person, warranting the addition of a secondary paper bag, in case the first one would malfunction.
We tend to say-
About as pointless as Tits on a Bulldog - unnecessary
or as useful as Tits on a Bulldog - unhelpful
Although I think the paper bag jokes started as male, I've heard the phrase Double Bagger used differently by women
It describes a man who sleeps around - ie you wouldn't risk sex with him unless he was using two condoms (double bagged)
BFE
East Jabip, Podunk, the sticks, Hicksville = somewhere remote, possibly with fewer hallmarks of civilization.
Sack up, man up, cowboy up = gather up one's courage for a daunting task.
The phrase that drives me nuts - it's a very Southern US thing and unfortunately I picked it up from living in North Carolina for 5 years is: might could.
Example: We might could go to the store.
EHHH, I hate it, but I catch myself doing it.
We tend to say-
About as pointless as Tits on a Bulldog - unnecessary
or as useful as Tits on a Bulldog - unhelpful
We say tits on a boar.
ashtray on a motorbike over there, innit?
pissed ----> shit faced
piss off -----> go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut
kick the bucket?
ashtray on a motorbike over there, innit?
As a friend of mine used to say "Ashtray's a girl's name".
We say tits on a bull here
Up the creek without a paddle
or in some versions (my mom's)
Up poopoo creek without a paddle
Cut the cheese (don't know how american it is)
Don't have a cow.
Up the creek without a paddle, is used here but I suspect is borrowed from America.
Daaayyyuum!
YeeeHaww!
Git Some!
Throw Down!
Ain't.
Kick-ass!
heh, the only one of those we use if ain't. I suspect that's quite old.
mmm...actually, I think we do come to think about it. But we use it in an American way, if that makes sense. We use it with an awareness that we are using American slang.
Makes perfect sense... I use some UK phrases like that.
Bully for you.
Do you guys use 'good egg' and 'bad egg'?
I thought they'd more or less died out over here but then in the mid-nineties i discovered that they were used quite a lot by drug-dealing types in the north ( you don't need to know how I know that :P) There's something quite sinister about a slightly psychopathic speed dealer saying someone's a 'bad egg'. Always got the impression someone was about to get their head staved in.
I hear it more from older people.
dumber than a bag of hammers or box of rocks.
tighter than a nun's nasty or no no
tighter than a frog's asshole (that's water tight) or (yuck) a two year old.
Both of those are used in Britain, but are quite old fashioned. I think they come from around the 16th century, but I may be wrong.
Bone up on something, we use also.
"Can't get there from here". I love that. I can almost hear the Maine accent!
I jus...... come down...... from Maine.
Back home was.... the duttyest man..... you evah.... did see.
His name.... was Enoch..... Turner.
Enoch....had a brotha....named Stomach.....Turner.
Now Stomach....got brought befoa the Jedge......for bein'...so dutty.
Jedge says..... Stomach......how come yoah.... so dutty?
Stomach says.....Jedge......how often...... do you change.... your shirt?
Jedge says.....why...I change my shirt.....eeevery day.
Stomach says....now Jedge...how can you sit there and call me dutty....when you dutty 365 shirts... a year.....to my one?
I jus.....come down...from Maine.
:D
A double bagger - One for them and one for you just in case theirs falls off!
From my Navy time, and haven't much heard it anywhere else, except from my Navy-retiree wife who heard it there too:
Piggly Wiggly three-bagger takes a touch of explanation as to its antecedents. Piggly Wiggly is a fairly widely distributed grocery store chain, mostly in the Old South; thus, paper grocery bags, along with the obvious suggestion about this ungainly sex partner you're putting up with. One bag for you and two over her head, just in case her first bag tears open!
Late in her Navy years, my wife once delivered herself of the expletive, "Son of a syphilitic slime-dog!" in public hearing. A little later, a couple of callow young seamen sidled up to her to ask for a repeat, that they might take notes. Ah, educating the young and eager...
Lock, stock, and barrel -- precisely synonymous with
hook, line, and sinker. Lists the main components of a flintlock rifle.
A Southernism:
eat up with (something) -- suffering greatly, said with a strong, groaning emphasis on "up." "I'm about eat
up with the dumb-ass" isn't about anybody but oneself: "boy, was I fucking stupid!" -- rightly said if you just deliberately tried to drive your classic-car hot-rod over a new sinkhole and you're watching its taillights just going under. "How's the arthritis?" "I'm about eat up with it."
Airhead continues to develop: "Blow in my ear, honey, I need a refill." "If you stuck a pressure gauge in her ear, it'd draw about 790 Torr." In even worse mental case than the kind of thing Eeyore railed about re the unintelligent: ". . .just have some gray fluff in their heads that got blown in by mistake."
My uncle reports from his time working in the UK for Procter and Gamble that "all set" in the sense of "we have enough" was a phrase that Englishmen didn't understand; telling a waitress inquiring if there was anything else she might get them that "no thanks, we're all set" left her nonplused.
There are all sorts of explanations for "the whole nine yards" and about all of them miss fire on some inconvenient point...
The standard full load for a cement mixer truck is ten cubic yards, not nine.
There was a rather durable story that the ammunition load for the wing guns of the P-51 Mustang fighter was a nine-yard belt of .50 caliber for each of six guns, and there are a few photos of ground crewmen schlepping a belt of the stuff that looks durn near nine yards total, but then some iconoclast went and did some measuring or interviewing.
I'm sure y'all have seen me make slightly Southern sounding posts sometimes...
Nauticalisms come to mind, some of which are suffering from a decay of meaning: by and large didn't mean generally to the sailors of yesteryear, but I'm not sure enough of what it did mean to say without doing some googling first. Splice the mainbrace hasn't, but is fading into mere quaintness. Hit between wind and water is better explained as holes in the hull than as catching a wallop in the perineum, I think. Copperbottomed is out of currency nowadays except in historical novels.
A few in relatively standard American usage have been, uh, altered by my exposure to another dwellar ...
"Useless as tits on a left-handed monkey" and "Come Hell, high water, Hitler, or the Second Coming of Christ" are two of the most memorable.
"Sucks moose cock" is one of my own.
I've been trying very hard to come up with some more of these, but I think because they are in such common usage, that I don't even consider that they are typically American phrases.
The boys at work looked at me funny when i said "jeezly fuck" the other day - thanks 'spode.
I was impressed when I read it, and it must of stuck on some level.
Dull person=personality of roadkill
Taking a dump (which may be an Americanism itself)= Dropping the kids off at the pool
Cheese and rice=Jeezus Christ
Anything Foghorn Leghorn ever said.
The real McCoy was about the inventor of the first decent combustion engine... a free black man.
"is it a good-un?"... "it's a' real McCoy".
My father-in-law has some good ones:
"Finer than frog fur"
"Back when Hector was a pup"
"Older'n'dirt"
"I've got underwear that's older than you!"
My grandma says "finer than frog hair."
Also "colder than a popcorn fart."
What about not knowing the difference between "your ass and a hole in the ground"?
Taking a dump (which may be an Americanism itself)= Dropping the kids off at the pool
That's the first time I ever heard that explanation, must be an Ohio thing. Here it means taking a crap. :blush:
That's the first time I ever heard that explanation, must be an Ohio thing. Here it means taking a crap. :blush:
Are you being silly? You do know I meant:
Taking a crap="dropping the kids off at the pool."
I couldn't figure out how to say it without using a various number of other Americanisms! :blush:
Some of these are southern, some aren't. I don't know which are which anymore. Levels of humor also vary....
"She looks like a bag of cats headed for the river"
"If he was playing for syrup, he wouldn't get a sop"
"He smelled so bad he'd knock a buzzard off a gut wagon"
Bodacious (I've only ever heard it used in reference to food, but it has other connotations apparently).
"You look like the frazzled end of hard times"
"You look like the morning after the night before" (for hangovers)
"He's all hat, no cattle"
"He doesn't have the sense God gave a billy goat."
"You make a better door than a window" (you're blocking my view)
"What, do I look stupid?" (or "What do I look, stupid?" -- never knew how to phrase it right) -- this always sounds like it should be said with a Brooklyn accent, to me.
"Get off your high horse"
"Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me"
"You writing a book? Leave that chapter out" -- when asked a prying question.
"If you had dynamite for brains, you wouldn't have enough to blow your nose"
"He's all hat, no cattle"
Great one. Nobody likes a fake-ass cowboy.
Great one. Nobody likes a fake-ass cowboy.
It's been used much for Bush. I thought Ann Richards had used it, but I couldn't find reference. However, I liked this one:
"Poor George. He can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth."
My uncle reports from his time working in the UK for Procter and Gamble that "all set" in the sense of "we have enough" was a phrase that Englishmen didn't understand; telling a waitress inquiring if there was anything else she might get them that "no thanks, we're all set" left her nonplused.
Either she had trouble with his accent or she was just a bim in general - it's not a common phrase over here, but it's not unheard of. My Uncle certainly used to use it when we had buffet style meals, "Right, I think I'm all set" when he'd filled his plate.
A euphemism for...uh, you know!
As in "Wanna play hide the sausage?"
I can guess which thread you've come from without even stalking you! (but I'm off to check anyway)
Anything Foghorn Leghorn ever said.
The real McCoy was about the inventor of the first decent combustion engine... a free black man.
"is it a good-un?"... "it's a' real McCoy".
Now I KNOW you read that book to the mini rkzenrage.
It had me choked up, believe it or don't.
(oooh bad pun, didn't mean it)
crapping:
laying cable, downloading a mag (film magazine) from my gaffer days, oinching a loaf.
I feel like I've been eaten by a coyote and shit off a cliff
It was cats fucking dogs <--all fucked up
and my own invention: "He's got his head so far up his ass he has to open his mouth to see where he's going"
Are you being silly? You do know I meant:
Taking a crap="dropping the kids off at the pool."
I couldn't figure out how to say it without using a various number of other Americanisms! :blush:
He didn't have his joke hand up. You're excused with a two beer penalty, your cooler. That was some razor xob funny.
"He ain't got the sense God gave grass", I use that one a lot.
"Bout' as sharp as a sack of wet mice".
"Bless his/her heart" used at the end of any insult.
"You look like you were shot at and missed, and shit at and hit."
"Your eyes look like two pee-holes in the snow."
Both to indicate a discheveled, tired appearance.
"Shit in one hand and wish in the other and see which one fills up first."
He didn't have his joke hand up. You're excused with a two beer penalty, your cooler. That was some razor xob funny.
No no, I thought it was weird, but that she was serious....went right over my head. :redface:
What about not knowing the difference between "your ass and a hole in the ground"?
Which reminds me about "not being able to find your own asshole with both hands and a flashlight," which may be used to refer to anyone who is "a piece of work."
Pushing the envelope
And "Screwing the Pooch," which I had never heard before reading
The Right Stuff."Bless his/her heart" used at the end of any insult.
That's quite similar to one we use: "Bless his/her little cotton socks" sometimes shorterned to just "aww, bless" which can be insulting, or just indicating that someone has been cute.
So dumb he couldn’t pour pee out of a boot if there were directions on the toe saying tip up.
If I have to explain this one, I’m talking about you.
Looks like he fell out of the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down.
Busier than a two tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs
Busier than a one armed paper hanger
Busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest
Rode hard and put away wet
God bless your pointed little head
Rides the short bus
Fine as paint
Pretty fine/smooth/well.
Hook, line and sinker; rod, reel and arm.
I’ll see your everything and raise you.
Like white on rice
How tenaciously one will follow or stick to
Btw, mrnoodle, bodacious goes with ta-tas
Sweatin' like a whore in church.
I don't come down to where you work and slap the dick out of your mouth.
(also known as)
I don't come down to where you work and slap the broom out of your hand.
During the middle of winter, I went through a military course that entailed patrolling for several days under evasion conditions. When it came time to halt the patrol long enough to get some sleep, most of the students crawled into sleeping bags. I slept sitting up against my backpack, wearing only a poncho with liner over me, ready to move on a moments notice. A couple of course instructors were passing by when one pointed me out to the other and said "That guy's as hard as woodpecker lips."
It was the only time I've ever heard this phrase used; but, it stuck with me.
What a brilliantly evocative phrase
Yes, a keeper for sure. :thumbsup:
And one from the pen of regional author H. Allen Smith, who wrote a lot about Texas, chili, and an orange tomcat named Rhubarb. Plenty of ecstatic kneading on a typewriter eventually delivered this line from
Son of Rhubarb: "Your Honor, I move this testimony be stricken on the grounds that this witness could not find his crotch with both hands if his jockstrap were on fire."
"Nobody Knows More About Chili Than I Do"I believe that "bought the farm" stems from collecting one's life insurance policy so as to have enough money to pay off the mortgage,,,for one's survivors.
rag = newspaper (more often used by older folks)
slower than pond water = a southernism used by my Dad
"trunk" you probably know, but when I first came across the British word "boot," I was perplexed for days. ;)
Yes, boots and bonnets have nothing to do with automobiles. :D
does the carpet match the drapes?
cuffs and collars match?
Boy, if I could get Shine in this. Other day I heard him say something like, screwed up as bad as S*&ting in grandma's churn.
Mine, tangled up like a snake under a lawn mower
I think my favourite is '90 percent of imports come from abroad'
Even better, when they charge for Shiner Bock as an import beer. It's brewed here in Texas.
In that case, I guess they think import means "not Budweiser, Miller, or Coors" . . . [SIZE="3"]???[/SIZE]
I guess that must fall in the 10% of imports that don't come from abroad.
BFE = really far away (like where you'll find a parking space at the mall this time of year)
BFE = really far away (like where you'll find a parking space at the mall this time of year)
and then you'll need to walk
a fur piece.
Does anyone know where "cleaned their clocks" comes from? I used it last weekend, and I've been trying to figure out where it came from ever since.
Not the sharpest knife in the drawer
Not the brightest apple in the tree
I think that "cats fucking dogs" is nowhere near as popular as "cats and dogs sleeping together" or "it's raining cats and dogs".
We had to clean up "cats fucking dogs" to a G rated version for use in front of the inchling. It's now "cats dating dogs."
"Cats and dogs living together" is how we say it...
One Monkey don't make a show.
Does anyone know where "cleaned their clocks" comes from? I used it last weekend, and I've been trying to figure out where it came from ever since.
Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang:
TO CLEAN SOMEONE’S CLOCK, phrase [1940’s and still in use] (originated in U.S.) 1) to beat up severely. 2) to take all someone’s money, especially during gambling (cf. ‘clean out’). [figurative use of Standard English]; ? link to US railroad jargon ‘clean the clock,’ to apply the airbrakes and thus bring the train to a sudden stop. The ‘clock’ in question is the air gauge, which on halting, immediately registers zero and is thus ‘clean.’].
_________________________
American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms
CLEAN SOMEONE’S CLOCK: Beat, thrash, or defeat someone decisively, as in “He’s much bigger than you and could easily clean your clock.” This term originated in the military. The use of ‘clock’ is unclear but possibly alludes to hitting someone in the face ( for ‘clockface’) [slang mid-1900s]
_________________________
Brewer’s Dictionary of Modern Phrase & Fable
TO CLEAN SOMEONE’S CLOCK: To beat or defeat them decisively. The term is of U.S. military origin and arose during the Second World War. A person’s ‘clock’ is probably their face (‘dial’).
Oh, and here's a great Westernism that I heard today in Cortez, Colorado: "This ain't my first time out the chute at the rodeo."
Do Brits use "in dutch"? I'm not actually sure how common it is here, for that matter. But I grew up with it. It means "in trouble".
i'm glad i came to this thread. i just left jinx's beaver thread shaking my head and wondering what the heck "in dutch" meant.
not sure we do......
we use 'going dutch' ie each partner on a date pays half each....
your'e speaking 'double dutch' - I don't understand what your'e saying
A 'dutchman' is a wooden patch used to repair a defect or knot or damage of some sort to another piece of wood.
Do Brits use "in dutch"? I'm not actually sure how common it is here, for that matter. But I grew up with it. It means "in trouble".
no, we just say "in the shit".
chastized =
got a bollocking
got strife
Emerging in newspapers today: Redneck Words of Wisdom, collected and organized by one Jamie Muehlhausen, confining himself to stuff said by people just talkin', and not a Jeff Foxworthy oneliner. Some, uh, gems:
"I feel like I've been eaten by a bear and shit off a cliff." In this case, deponent was quite hung-over. Cf., ". . .swallowed a bobcat, and then done something to piss it off."
A few exerpts. The article ran them under bullets, but I won't bother; this is just the flavor of the thing:
"It's hotter than 40 acres of burning stumps."
"It's colder than a brass toilet seat on the shady side of an iceberg." -- I've been out in South Dakota winter mornings that were a lot like that. Freeze up the snot in your nose on the inhale, they do. That's one way to tell it's forty below.
"You got to be ten percent smarter than the equipment you're runnin'."
"I'm gonna put a knot in your head the Boy Scouts can't get out."
"A bumblebee is faster than a John Deere tractor."
"Don't skinny-dip with snapping turtles."
"I'm busier than a one-armed man in a fistfight." -- Gun guru Jeff Cooper is on record as having cast this one as "busier than a onelegged Indian in an ass-kicking contest."
"I feel lower than a bowlegged caterpillar."
The article goes on: "Another key component is the delivery. Anyone who's witnessed that or been on the receiving end knows the following: typically, there's a stop to size you up, then a pause -- maybe even a glance off into the distance or down to the ground -- followed by the line, usually stated very dryly."
just a quick thought... george funk (real name)
http://www.amazon.com/Horsefeathers-Other-Curious-Words-Charles/dp/0062733532
(although.. never buy from them.. find it at a used book store.. if you can)
look at that link.. word/phrase origins.. great stuff for the over read-undereducated crowd :) )
Today, I have mostly been annoyed by the phrase "visiting with".
Especially when in Cabelas
(Brits, you just need to come over and see it to get it, but it's for people who like to kill any animal they can find in any way they can find (we go there because you can adapt this stuff for paintball. at least that's what hubby tells me))
.....anyway, the guy who helped us said "it's been nice visiting with you" as a parting phrase. and yesterday a mom told her kid to wait until she was finished visiting with me. We were just chatting, ffs!
The other day I was helping a friend pour footings for a round pen he's building, later on we were checking the set of the concrete and he said "Well, it's harder than dad's..."
I'd never heard that one before.
"She's got the kind of legs he likes!"
Said when looking for something nice to say about a woman who is the latest in a long line of romantic interests for a guy who isn't particular about what kind of women he goes out with.
She's got the kind of legs he likes [feet on one end and pussy on the other]. :female: