Wierd sayings
We were just discussing some of the stranger sayings we have (in UK which perhaps have travelled to the USA), such as;
'I know that place like the back of my hand' - when very few of us know the backs of our hands that well, and where would such a saying have come from anyway??
Equally 'that would be like teaching your granny to suck eggs' - did granny suck eggs? Is it some obsure reference to her absence of teeth thereby rendering egg consumption a sucking affair???
All very confusing.
Any suggestions as to their derivation? Any more that confuse?
A sure sign it's Friday and winding down time....
I don't know the origin of those with googling, and somehow that seems like cheating, so I'll just answer questions with more questions if that's ok.
I'm still trying to find the origin of the phrase "More [insert item] than you can shake a stick at" I'm not satisfied by the answers I've found on the internet...
Another stick related query:
I've always assumed the carrot & stick approach referred to a system of motivating by reward. In other words the carrot is dangled in front of the donkey via a long stick, and it strives to reach it.
Recently the phrase seems to imply its either carrot OR stick. So that the donkey is rewarded with a carrot or punished with a stick.
Has the phrase become misunderstood?
Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick.
i actually heard an explanation of the term 'sucker' as being derived from old women stealing food from markets by poking a hole in an egg shell and sucking out the contents. it was during a lesson about the great depression, but it may have translated to the UK?
Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick.
I've always wondered what the H stood for... Holy?
I'm having kittens here waiting to find out... :)
i actually heard an explanation of the term 'sucker' as being derived from old women stealing food from markets by poking a hole in an egg shell and sucking out the contents. it was during a lesson about the great depression, but it may have translated to the UK?
That would be better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick - is there a saying somewhere about sucking your eyes out...?? Or am I thinking of 'that really sucks'?
I've always wondered what the H stood for... Holy?
I'm having kittens here waiting to find out... :)
Our kittens from hell have a new home...meant to tell you...
I thought the 'H' was for Hova as in J.Hova (Jehova) Christ. Probably wrong (wife insists I usually am).
happy as a lark...are larks really that happy?
open up a can of worms...and then what happens?
quiet as a mouse...I hear them all the time.
open up a can of worms...and then what happens?
sort of like herding cats
happy as a lark...are larks really that happy?
open up a can of worms...and then what happens?
quiet as a mouse...I hear them all the time.
Change the order slightly and there is a logical progression:
open up a can of worms - and that will attract a lot of larks who once they have consumed the worms will be as....
happy as a lark - but all this feeding activity will likely attract other predatorial birds like hawks, kestrels and falcons who are particularly fond of those small furry creatures known as mice, so if the mice want to have a chance to survive they will need to be....
quiet as a mouse - which as you say isn't that quiet, hence a lot of them still get eaten...
Natures way of balancing the species, I suppose (BTW, wife says I'm wrong.....)
Sick as a parrot ( pre-dates avian flu so what caused the saying in the first place?)
Cuts the mustard - meaning: comes up to scratch (which could be another one except I think it has connections with golf and being a scratch/zero handicap player, but it may pre-date this)
It is carrot and stick. The phrase implies reward for doing well and punishment for doing poorly.
I've always wondered what the H stood for... Holy?
I'm having kittens here waiting to find out... :)
Hopping.
I've always assumed the carrot & stick approach referred to a system of motivating by reward. In other words the carrot is dangled in front of the donkey via a long stick, and it strives to reach it.
Yes
'I know that place like the back of my hand' - when very few of us know the backs of our hands that well, and where would such a saying have come from anyway??
If something appeared or started to grow on the back of your hand wouldn't you notice? It means being able to spot any change right away.
Jesus H. Christ on a pogo stick
Heretic :) ...the H is added to skirt taking the name of the Lord in vain.
open up a can of worms...and then what happens?
They wiggle off in every direction at once and you have a big confusing mess.
quiet as a mouse...I hear them all the time.
But not running their mouths off, just the noise of doing what they do.
hand....which side IS the back? the dorsal side, or ventral?
back of the hand - opposite of the palm :2cents:
well, i know the front of my hand better than the back.....of my hand
Cuts the mustard - meaning: comes up to scratch (which could be another one except I think it has connections with golf and being a scratch/zero handicap player, but it may pre-date this)
Cuts as in dilutes rather than separates, perhaps? Makes palatable?? Undiluted mustard is pretty strong stuff, after all, and overwhelms the tastebuds.
You know ... this might make an interesting party game.
I thought maybe someone already had done this, but the objective of
Wise and Otherwise is to complete a maxim, not explain it.
Opening a can of worms usually means "making a bigger problem than the one you were trying to solve", because it is harder to deal with an open can of worms than a closed one. When the can is closed, you at least know roughly how many worms you have and where they can be found. Open the can, and the squiggle all over, and it is nearly impossible to put them back in.
Now..."Piss like a racehorse"...that's one that has always baffled the piss out of me. Are racehorses known for producing more urine than, say, a plough horse? Or is this related to the drug testing they make racehorses endure? I thought that was done via saliva, so shouldn't it in that case be "spit like a racehorse"?
Stupid sayings... :rar:
Drier then a popcorn fart. One of my favorites..
This one always gets me...
Cuter then a fat puppies ass..or Cuter then a bug's ear.
Drunker the Cooter Brown.
Huh?
Now..."Piss like a racehorse"...that's one that has always baffled the piss out of me.
Race horses are given the diuretic
Lasix that in addition to making them piss a lot also helps to prevent them bleeding in the lungs from the exertion during races.
Hey! My dad used to say this, although I seem to remember it being 'piss like a Russian racehorse'. Huh. Who knew.
" a right smart"
EX: "He has a right smart of money".
"Yes, There were a right smart of people there"
***AND***
SAM HILL
Now what the Sam Hill does that 'spose to mean?
It is carrot and stick. The phrase implies reward for doing well and punishment for doing poorly.
I disagree. I think Sundae Girl and xoxoxoBruce are right on this one.
Jesus H Christ! You have wierder ones in the US than in the UK.
Sam Hill??? Who the Dickens is Sam Hill??? And 'right smart' is another one I've never come across, unless it arises north of Watford (over to Sundae Girl...)
Piss like a racehorse - now I think that is a corruption of 'piss (it) like a racehorse', Where the idea of 'piss it' means to accomplish it easily, as in the English cockney 'it was a piece of piss' meaning it was really very easy, as it is to piss (or pass water*) when you need to (although we also use another phrase for the same thing describing something easy as 'being a right doddle' - and I have absolutely no (zilch??) idea about where that one comes from...!)
* there's a joke about this: guy goes to doctors complaining about feeling poorly, to which the doctor asks 'do you find you have trouble passing water?' to which the guy replies 'funny you should ask that, I came over real dizzy on the bus the other day, just as it was going past the local reservoir!' Oh well some you do, some you don't!
SAM HILL = hell
[Q] From Doug Hickey: “I have often heard in American movies and on television phrases like ‘What in the Sam Hill is going on?’ Or, ‘What the Sam Hill happened here?’ Or, some such exclamation. I have not been able to find the basis of this expression.”
[A] There is a story sometimes told (for example in Edwin Mitchell’s Encyclopedia of American Politics in 1946) that one Colonel Samuel Hill of Guilford, Connecticut, would often run for political office at some point in the early nineteenth century but always without success. Hence, “to run like Sam Hill” or “go like Sam Hill”. The problem is that nobody has found any trace of this monumentally unsuccessful candidate.
On the other hand, an article in the New England Magazine in December 1889 entitled Two Centuries and a Half in Guilford Connecticut mentioned that, “Between 1727 and 1752 Mr. Sam. Hill represented Guilford in forty-three out of forty-nine sessions of the Legislature, and when he was gathered to his fathers, his son Nathaniel reigned in his stead” and a footnote queried whether this might be the source of the “popular Connecticut adjuration to ‘Give ‘em Sam Hill’?” So the tale has long legs.
The expression has been known since the late 1830s. Despite the story, it seems to be no more than a personalised euphemism for “hell”.
that's just a hard goddamned fact of life.
I thought we were just going to speculate wildly and offer our own bullheaded opinions on these sayings. Now LJ has gone and brought apparent factual information into the mix. Damn, you can't fake anything anymore.
Fuck'n A Skippy ,
What the hell does this meen ? And who the Hell is Skippy ???
Fuck'n A Skippy ,
What the hell does this meen ? And who the Hell is Skippy ???
Skippy is the guy who invented the peanut butter.
-------------
That'll learn ya.
How's about I break my foot off in your ass? - That sounds mighty painful.
I don't care if it short-dicks every cannibal in the Congo. - I know what it means. I use it at least once a week.
Colder than a witch's tit.
Or Pete.
Anyone who doesn't understand what "piss like a racehorse" means hasn't spent much time watching racehorses piss.
I wonder about things like ...
Useless as tits on a bull (as well as the "on a left handed monkey" version).
Speaking of tits ... why are winter temperatures referred to as being "colder than a witches tit?" I assure you mine are quite warm. I would probably me more amenable to experimental investigation of this particular saying that Els.
Speaking of weather ... Does a brass monkey actually have balls?
Speaking of balls ... why does that mean courage?
In the US we say "happy as a clam". In Mexico it's "happy as a worm." Of course, worms are probably less obviously happy than clams are, but in Mexico they like their sayings to rhyme. Thus they changed it to "feliz como un lombriz". Now that I think about it, few of our common sayings rhyme.
Cutting the Cheese is very difficult to explain to non-native English speakers.
I had to explain that to the CEO/Medical Director of our hospital.
In the board room.
During a meeting.
She said it in the course of preparing an elaborate cheese tray intended for a later meeting.
Our executive staff all stifled a guffaw when she told me to tell someone waiting for her that she would be with them when she was through cutting the cheese.
Seeing the looks around the table, she figured out that she had obviously made some linquistic faux pas, but no one was willing to explain it to her.
I had to.
The Medical Director/CEO is from Spain. She speaks at least 1/2 dozen languages. American Idiom still mystifies her despite living in this country for more than 40 years.
Speaking of weather ... Does a brass monkey actually have balls?
Legend says
In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters
carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron cannon balls. It was
necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. But how to prevent them
from rolling about the deck?
The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one
ball on top, resting on four resting on nine which rested on sixteen.
Thus, a supply of thirty cannon balls could be stacked in a small area
right next to the cannon.
There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from
sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate
called a "Monkey" with sixteen round indentations. But, if this plate
was made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution
to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys."
Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much
faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped
too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon
balls would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally,
"Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!"
The Navy says
According to the United States Navy Historical Center, this is a legend of the sea without historical justification. The center has researched this because of the questions it gets and says the term "brass monkey" and a vulgar reference to the effect of cold on the monkey's extremities, appears to have originated in the book "Before the Mast" by C.A. Abbey. It was said that it was so cold that it would "freeze the tail off a brass monkey." The Navy says there is no evidence that the phrase had anything to do with ships or ships with cannon balls.
:neutral:
That one about flipping the bird isn't true either.
Fuck'n A Skippy ,
What the hell does this meen ? And who the Hell is Skippy ???
Not sure about yr answer Crimson. I thought Skippy was a famous Australian kangaroo (the Ozzie answer to Lassie, although I think the old 'What's the matter Lassie?' 'bark-bark-bark-bark!' 'What! Little Jimmy's fallen in the well?' 'Bark-bark-bark-bark!' 'And the rope's broken so you can't pull him out?', etc., etc., was replaced with some strange chittering and mouth wobbling which is all kangaroos can do, otherwise the 'conversation' followed much the same line - BTW whaever happend to Rin-tin-tin? - Go, Rinty, go!! - and anyone remember the name of his young boy master? Did he go on to greater things, like, maybe Champion the Wonder Horse, or perhaps The Elephant Man?? ). Sorry, got a bit carried away there - back to Skippy - IMHP, that makes the saying more visually appealing to an Australian (and possibly even to a Welshman) who would usually have to make do with a sheep!
Rin-Tin-Tin's boy was named Rusty. No last name. I seem to recall him being the charming orphan that for some reason lived at the Cavalry fort.
I am young enoug that Rin-Tin-Tin predates me by quite a few years, but old enough that the B&W reruns were on TV when I was a kid.
I liked the Lone Ranger a lot better.
Rin-Tin-Tin's boy was named Rusty. No last name. I seem to recall him being the charming orphan that for some reason lived at the Cavalry fort.
I am young enoug that Rin-Tin-Tin predates me by quite a few years, but old enough that the B&W reruns were on TV when I was a kid.
I liked the Lone Ranger a lot better.
Thanks Wolf - came back in a flash as I read it. Agree with you about Lone Ranger - those old silver bullets do it every time. Guy who played hime was Clay Silverheels(?)... And did you ever catch the strip of Lone Ranger in Mad Magazine? Good old Tonto (apparently tonto in Spanish means idiot!). Not to deviate too long from the purpose of this thread, would add that my favourite was Range Rider with JocK Mahoney - they just got the fight sound effects and actions to real 'total-awe' level from a young appreciative boy viewer's standpoint!
Saw your brass monkeys query - some do, some don't depends on the foundry doing the casting and whether there's enough brass left over ( you cold get some 'total-awe' ones from the right foundry!)
Which brings up another saying we have here: 'pull the other one, it's got bells on' meaning that the person saying it saw that someone was trying to play a joke on him or con him or embarass him. Think it comes from 'pulling the leg' meaning to play a prank on a person.
The only 'clean' reference to bells I can think of would be those strange country dancers we have known as Morris Men - all dressed in white trousers and shirts, wearing straw hats with ribbons, bells around the bottoms of their trousers, dancing in heavy duty boots and banging each others sticks (that they carry in their right hand) together. All to the accompaniment of unrecognisable tunes played on an accordion by a three-parts drunk person who insists on tapping his foot almost in time and swaying back and forth as he plays. See, I told you we were normal!
Just remembered a north England saying from Yorkshire/Lancashire area which is said when told something surprising or incredible:
'Well, I'll go t' foot of our stairs!'
Why...???
I actually happen to like Morris Dancing.
Lovely way to spend the First of May, isn't it?
Jay Silverheels played Tonto, Clayton Moore was the Lone Ranger.
Now, gentleman ... what is it about your left nut in particular that makes you want to trade it for things? And did Lance Armstrong offer his to the devil to win the Tour DeFrance that many times in a row ...
Mystery masked man was smarter
He got himself a Tonto
Cuz Tonto did the dirty work for free
But Tonto he was smarter
Said, "Kiss my ass Kimosabe,
I've bought a boat, I'm going out to sea..."
- Lyle Lovett
You and me who, white man?
Lance Armstrong was just faster than greased lightening.
Does anyone besides me think that Monty Python's "The Fish Slapping Dance" was based on Morris Dancing?
Or Pete.
My preferred rendering
I like "Tempest in a Teapot". Say you start to actually get grumpy about an on-line argument...
Just for the trivia buffs, "Rin Tin Tin's boy", Rusty, was played by Robert Blake. Later, he also played "Little Beaver" to another Western hero, Red Ryder.
BTW: Tonto got his name by virtue of the Tonto Indian tribe. I'm not sure where they were located, but the Tonto tribe was part of the Apache Nation. I think there is even a Tonto National Forest in Arizona. Since the Lone Ranger story was supposed to start in Texas, it would be interesting to find out why the author of the original book chose a Native American who wouldn't normally have been anywhere near there, but the white man had a knack for messing up facts when these "Sage Brush Romances" became popular around the turn of the 19th Century. More BTW: Apaches never wore the kind of buckskin outfit that Tonto traditionally wears in the movies, that garb was more like what Kit Carson and the Fremont Scouts wore in the 1840's. Jay Silverheels is also using a hairstyle which is distinctly Navajo; Apaches wore their hair straight and long.
As to why the tribe ended up with the name "tonto" in the first place, we can only imagine that some administrator for New Spain or a mission padre who was exasperated with trying to get more work out of the Indians they essentially enslaved remarked "Mirad a esos tontos!" when some of the people shuffled by, and the derogatory comment stuck.
I disagree. I think Sundae Girl and xoxoxoBruce are right on this one.
Your privilege. But American Heritage Dictionary of the English language has this to say:
carrot-and-stick
Combining a promised reward with a threatened penalty: took a carrot-and-stick approach to the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders.
This only make senses if part of the phrase implies punishment.
How many of those dictionary writers even saw a donkey, let alone try to move one. They've taken a perfectly logical expression and corrupted it.
Good luck trying to bribe that juvenile offender with a stinkin carrot. :p
Good luck disciplining one with a stick, either. Not that I'm in favor of child abuse, but most of them seem to get off with a light rap across the knuckles these days.
For a hilarious take from an Indian on Tonto, try
here
In the movies, Indians are always accompanied by ominous music. And I've seen so many Indian movies that I feel like I'm constantly accompanied by ominous music. I always feel that something bad is about to happen.
I am always aware of how my whole life is shaped by my hatred of Tonto. Whenever I think of Tonto, I hear ominous music.But American Heritage Dictionary of the English language has this to say:
Interesting. Almost all sites returned from a google search agreed with you, except that many of them also involved the riding-the-donkey origins...
From
Merriam-Webster:
"Etymology: from the traditional alternatives of driving a donkey on by either holding out a carrot or whipping it with a stick: characterized by the use of both reward and punishment to induce cooperation."
But what do you hold the carrot out with, if not a stick? You have to carry
two sticks to ride a donkey? They must be damn stubborn. ;)
"happy as a lark"
Lark as in: harmless prank or merry spree. From Old Norse leika (play)
But what do you hold the carrot out with, if not a stick? You have to carry two sticks to ride a donkey? They must be damn stubborn. ;)
With the carrot you stand IN FRONT of the donkey. With the stick, you are BEHIND him.
Not sure about yr answer Crimson. I thought Skippy was a famous Australian kangaroo (the Ozzie answer to Lassie, although I think the old 'What's the matter Lassie?' 'bark-bark-bark-bark!' 'What! Little Jimmy's fallen in the well?' 'Bark-bark-bark-bark!' 'And the rope's broken so you can't pull him out?', etc., etc., was replaced with some strange chittering and mouth wobbling which is all kangaroos can do, otherwise the 'conversation' followed much the same line - BTW whaever happend to Rin-tin-tin? - Go, Rinty, go!! - and anyone remember the name of his young boy master? Did he go on to greater things, like, maybe Champion the Wonder Horse, or perhaps The Elephant Man?? ). Sorry, got a bit carried away there - back to Skippy - IMHP, that makes the saying more visually appealing to an Australian (and possibly even to a Welshman) who would usually have to make do with a sheep!
Well, you might have a point there...
And you got me to thinking...
Thank God for early TV, giving us a boy and his dog.
Always a good thing to teach children about beastiality early.
------------------
I'll fuck you sideways and scream Easter Sunday! - Yeah... Huh... What?
Just for the trivia buffs, "Rin Tin Tin's boy", Rusty, was played by Robert Blake. Later, he also played "Little Beaver" to another Western hero, Red Ryder.
Robert Blake did appear in one Rin-Tin-Tin movie as "Paul the Refugee Lad" around the same time he was in the Red Ryder films (1947).
Lee Aaker played Rusty in the Adventures of Rin-Tin-Tin TV Show.
Just for the trivia buffs, "Rin Tin Tin's boy", Rusty, was played by Robert Blake.
One of my father's Army buddies (in the early '60s) later became a high-profile PI in LA. He told me in '78 that Robert Blake had once asked him for help in getting a handgun. Apparenty, such requests (from clients) were commonplace but he uncharacteristically decined to help Blake and explained to me at the time that he thought that people "like Blake" should never be allowed to own a weapon. It was not a decision he struggled with.
I called him during Blake's murder trial and reminded him of what he had told me 20+ years ago. He paused for a time before changing the subject.
The 'cutting the cheese' incident reminds me that I read that 'breaking wind' means 'farting' (anyone know the origin) in Britain. So if you were to go into a London store, you probably don't want to ask for a 'windbreaker'. I think they use a slightly different term.
I used to love the phrases used on "McCloud".
'Rode hard and put away wet'.
I'm not sure about this one - "Wherever you go, there you are".
Another stick related query:
I've always assumed the carrot & stick approach referred to a system of motivating by reward. In other words the carrot is dangled in front of the donkey via a long stick, and it strives to reach it.
Recently the phrase seems to imply its either carrot OR stick. So that the donkey is rewarded with a carrot or punished with a stick.
Has the phrase become misunderstood?
To my mind the carrot and stick refers originally to the two methods of getting results out of a horse/mule/donkey, the first being to encourage by way of motivation or reward (the bribe offer of a carrot) the second being the punitive method (strike with a stick).
The method is easily transferrable to describe any other situation where a result is required - you can either try to win the person round by reward or motrivation, or you can make them produce by threat of or even application of violence. 'Carrot and stick' is also used over here to describe the police tactic employed to get a confession out of a subject. Two police officers, one offering the kind approach ('come on Charlie, what's the point of holding out, it's you they've left holding the baby, fat lot they think of you, tell us who put you up to it...') and the ther the hard-nosed approach (' you're going go down for this, the only chance you've got is to tell us who set this up, hold back and I'll make sure you won't see the light of day for ten years minimum - and that's a promise...) :stickpoke
The 'cutting the cheese' incident reminds me that I read that 'breaking wind' means 'farting' (anyone know the origin) in Britain. So if you were to go into a London store, you probably don't want to ask for a 'windbreaker'. I think they use a slightly different term.
I think (well, I'm guessing, really) that it has something to do with the sound. You pass wind through the old clenched buttocks and it's a case of it has either struggled to break out, with great effort, or else the very sound itself can sound like a branch breaking off a tree (you mean.... your's don't..!??)
Old related joke: man goes to doctors - 'I have this trouble, I keep breakng wind, their really noisy but at least they don't smell'. 'Take down your trousers and I'll have a look'. As doctor goes to inspect man's arse he let's rip with 20 decibels. The doctor rises: 'I can see the trouble.' And starts to write a prescription. 'What is it something to stick up my backside?'' No, something to clear your nose!'
I'm not sure about this one - "Wherever you go, there you are".
I have a mug that says that (nearly ... actually it's "no matter where you go, there you are") given to me by a friend because she knew how much I loved
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension. (He says it during ther performance in the bar where Penny tries to shoot herself and misses.)
CycleFrance, maybe you can help me out with this one. I don't see or hear this expression in the States, but when I read something out of the British Isles, I come across the expression "The penny dropped," meaning the person finally got the idea? Where did THAT come from?
"Spend a penny" means taking a whiz, right? (I'm guessing it has something to do with either pay toilets or tipping the attendant)
"Spend a penny" means taking a whiz, right? (I'm guessing it has something to do with either pay toilets or tipping the attendant)
I can take pride in my age on this one as I can bear witness to the accuracy of the answer.
When I was a lad, a day-trip to the beach was a regular summer treat. The public toilets that were abundant at the seaside resorts (known more officially as 'public conveniences') required you to put a penny in a slot on the outside of the door, to release its lock if you wanted to gain access to a cubicle offering seated accommodation (paid for the daily bleaching!). Men who could stand at the communal urinal (could be the makings of a tongue twister there) didn't have to pay, and as you may have already guessed, women had to pay every time (such sexual discrimination was permitted in those days - women had only just got the vote, for God's sake, and the line had to be drawn somewhere!). The saying 'I'm off to spend a penny' became an accepted and relatively polite way for a lady to inform that she was off to the toilet! :Flush:
CycleFrance, maybe you can help me out with this one. I don't see or hear this expression in the States, but when I read something out of the British Isles, I come across the expression "The penny dropped," meaning the person finally got the idea? Where did THAT come from?
First thoughts are that it could relate to early UK public phone boxes (the old red ones). You'd lift the handset, put a penny in the slot and dial the number. When the phone was answered, you had the choice of pressing button A or button B. Pressing B gave you your money back - so if you got a wrong number you didn't have to pay (so long as the other person gave you a clue that it wasn't the right one), an the person receiving the call had no clue as to who had been callng them.. Pressing button A caused the penny to drop and the person at the other end could then hear who was calling them. The identity mystery was solved, but only when button A was pressed, the penny dropped (you could actually hear it clank into the box below the slot), and the caller could be heard at the other end.
I'm not great on Northern sayings as although I grew up north of Watford (Aylesbury, Bucks) its quite a way south of the Watford Gap (if you see what I mean).
Putting "right" in front of a word to mean very sounds Mancunian to me, I certainly haven't heard it in Leicester. Here they use "proper" as in "I'm proper stuffed after having that big cob".
I'm getting used to Leicesterisms now, but I doubt I'll ever call anyone "me duck"..................
Re spending a penny - it was 2p when I was a child. I found those public toilets quite scary. Mum would hold the door ajar so that we only paid 2p for her, my sister and me. I felt something terrible would happen if that heavy door swung closed and always entered feeling that permanent separation from my family was possible.
Now its 20p via a turnstile entrance & I am amazed at the improvement - electric lights, mirrors, soft toilet paper - well worth an extra 18p!
I love this! Now--what is a 'cob'? Like, "I'm proper stuffed after eating that cob of CORN", or what??
A cob is officially a crusty bread roll here, although its used generically for any type of bread roll.
Its an alien word to me, as in the South a cob is a small horse. I felt really embarrassed the first few times I said "Bacon cob please" but got used to it when I took a Saturday job in a bakers.
You can also say that someone "has a cob on" which is never taken as wearing a bread roll - it means in a bad mood. Other local sayings include "mardy" for grumpy or bad tempered and "nesh" for soft (as in not hardy).
Is it true that fortnight for 2 weeks isn't generally in use in the US?
I love this! Now--what is a 'cob'? Like, "I'm proper stuffed after eating that cob of CORN", or what??
Something in the depths of my noddle tells me that a cob is a type of loaf of bread or roll/bun, but I may be wrong....
A cob is officially a crusty bread roll here, although its used generically for any type of bread roll.
Its an alien word to me, as in the South a cob is a small horse. I felt really embarrassed the first few times I said "Bacon cob please" but got used to it when I took a Saturday job in a bakers.
You can also say that someone "has a cob on" which is never taken as wearing a bread roll - it means in a bad mood. Other local sayings include "mardy" for grumpy or bad tempered and "nesh" for soft (as in not hardy).
Is it true that fortnight for 2 weeks isn't generally in use in the US?
Telepathy, or what??? Nice timing!
i never hear 'fortnight' used here in my little part of the US. EVER. We say, "coupla weeks." We slurr a lot (and not because we're drunk--well, some of us are of course), but it's mainly laziness.
Now: is a bacon cob like a bacon sandwich? Or, is it bacon baked into the cob? Like a frittata?
A bacon cob is like a sandwich.
But a cheese cob can mean a cob filled with cheese, or a soft white cheese topped roll (very greasy, not very nice).
In fact cheese is complicated all round, because they have cheese mix as a filling (cheese, mayo, spring onion) and tuna-cheese mix (tuna, mayo, cheese, onion).
I made my own sandwiches for a few months when I moved here! (which I call a packed lunch, and everyone else calls a pack-up). Perhaps people should stay where they were born.....?
We say, "Did you pack?" meaning, bring your own lunch. In New Jersey I think it means "did you bring your gun?" If you were to say "pack up" to me I would think it meant you were moving.
Why is English cheese so complicated? And, what is Wensleydale and why can't I find it over here? :cheese:
I'll start a cheese thread & answer you there :)
Is the term "brown bagging it" regional? I've certainly read it somewhere.....
yes, it's regional. We don't say it much in Ohio. Like this:
officeWorker #1---"what's for lunch?"
officeWorker#2---"Oh, I packed."
oW#1---"I want Skyline."
oW#2---"Me, too. Let's go!" (throws packed lunch out, or, saves it for tomorrow, or, most likely, some 2nd shift worker finds abandoned lunch and eats it at 11pm and no one is the wiser.)
Stop it you two - all this talk of food is making me hungry. Presume you know the Englishman, Scotsman, Irishman sandwich joke - if not let me know and I'll post it on the humour thread.
As for 'brown bagging' - sounds extremely rude to me...!!
"More fun than a barrel of monkeys" -- seems to me that just about anything is more fun than that. They're either dead, which is just gross, or they're alive, which is creepy.
Also got schooled recently on the "spittin image" term. It's not spitting image, it's a contraction of spirit and image. "That girl is the spirit and image of her mother," means the two are alike in both appearance and action.
What about various fuck-related curses? Are they just ways of using the word creatively, or do they mean something? "I don't give a flying fuck", "well fuck me running", "fuckin-A". Like, WTF do they mean?
Oh yeah. My mom had a good one -- "Well, you look like the morning after the night before." Hangover euphemism. Funnier if it's said with a particular inflection.
Is it true that fortnight for 2 weeks isn't generally in use in the US?
Very true. And we can't figure out what the heck a "stone" is either, unless we're heaving it through someone's window.
(There is a social organization nearby for mental patients called Fortnighters, because when they formed (30 or 40 years ago) they met once every two weeks. None of the current members know why the club is called Fortnighters.)
Cheers for the spitting image explanation, never heard that before.
A guy I knew used to say "Just like the spit from his/ her mouth" to indicate resemblance..... I didn't like to think too hard about that one.
My Mum says burnt to buggery, bored to buggery, hurts like buggery. I'm worried to ask her about personal experience.
"Brown Bagging" has fallen out of use because hardly anyone has the brown bags anymore ... There used to be two ways you got lunchbags. One was that you bought a batch of them at the grocery store. The other was that you purchased small items at a grocery or variety store and they were given to you in the small brown bag that just happens to be the right size for a lunch.
Well ...
Stores don't use those brown bags anymore, you get plastic. And the supermarkets only have the full-size brown bags, and they hide them under the cash registers. You have to ask for them special ("Can you bag me paper in plastic?") It doesn't make the plastic bag any stronger, that's what double bagging is for, but the traditional brown bags do keep your stuff standing up straighter, and the bread doesn't get squished.
Anyway.
If you take your lunch to school or work or whatever these days, you usually have some kind of special vinyl lunch bag to take it in.
Mine has the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on it, but only because I couldn't find a Star Wars or a SpongeBob. I actually have trouble cramming stuff in there sometimes (grown up dinners are bigger than kid lunches) so I've lately been using a gift bag. That has Star Wars on it, so it's all good.
What about various fuck-related curses? Are they just ways of using the word creatively, or do they mean something? "I don't give a flying fuck", "well fuck me running", "fuckin-A". Like, WTF do they mean?
Fuck if I know , but my favorite is "oh, for fuck sake!"
I think I got muddled between 'brown-bagging' and a 'double-bagger' which is a rather unkind way to describe an unattractive lady - dangerous territory I'm entering here so I'll stop immediately (no double-entendre meant, but can see how that thought might arise....)
Stores don't use those brown bags anymore, you get plastic.
Actually, if you buy stuff in glass bottles, some stores will put the glass bottles in lunch-size paper bags to protect them from breaking.
Around here jars of pickles and peanut butter just have to take their chances. Glassware, pottery, and stuff like that gets wrapped in two of the plastic bags.
Fuck if I know , but my favorite is "oh, for fuck sake!"
Or an airborne attempt of actual intercourse at a perambulating perforated piece of pastry.
More simply... A flying fuck at a rolling donut. :blush:
I think I got muddled between 'brown-bagging' and a 'double-bagger' which is a rather unkind way to describe an unattractive lady - dangerous territory I'm entering here so I'll stop immediately (no double-entendre meant, but can see how that thought might arise....)
It describes an unattractive
person round here....
As well as the obvious covering the head with the bags, I've heard it used to describe a man who is considered a bit of a tart - you make him double bag it for your own sexual safety...
Imperial weights and measures - know some of them but not all:
pound - something to do with the size of stones used to pound the wheatears to remove the grain prior to milling, I think
stone - the largest stone in the process - 14 pounders were roughly the equivalent in weight of the larger stone
Funny how so many of these have something to do with agriculture, like...
yard - something to do with the length of the step ('foot' is the average foot size and a step or yard is three of those) - not sure more than that - there's a yardstick, being a standard measure of the step, but not sure why it's called that - then there are 22 yards (steps) to a chain...
chain - the length of the chain from the plough to the horse's 'collar' or yoke, and there are 10 chains to a furlong (links to the yard when one imagines the ploughman walking behind...)
furlong - literally a 'furrow long' - the length of the furrow in a ploughed field, obviously 220 yards, and then there are 8 furlongs to a mile (1760 yards)...
All quite logical in a rural sort of way....
It describes an unattractive person round here....
As well as the obvious covering the head with the bags, I've heard it used to describe a man who is considered a bit of a tart - you make him double bag it for your own sexual safety...
Quite right too! (seeking safe harbour....)
I've heard that what is commonly known as a "piggy-back" ride among people my age was originally a "pick-a-back" ride, before lazy tongues got ahold of it.
First thoughts are that it could relate to early UK public phone boxes (the old red ones). You'd lift the handset, put a penny in the slot and dial the number.
I'm guessing it had more to do with old arcade machines, specifically the fortune tellers, which would dispense a fortune or some wise saying.
My favorite fuck saying is 'Fuck you, you fucking fuck!'--has a nice ring to it.
But what do you hold the carrot out with, if not a stick? You have to carry two sticks to ride a donkey? They must be damn stubborn. ;)
YUP
'Rode hard and put away wet'.
I'm not sure about this one - "Wherever you go, there you are".
'Rode hard and put away wet.' - A horse riding term. If you rode a horse hard and put him away wet (from sweat), it means that you don't properly care for him. I'm sure that if I'm wrong, someone will be more than happy to flame... I mean... CORRECT me.
We say, "Did you pack?" meaning, bring your own lunch. In New Jersey I think it means "did you bring your gun?"
Why, yes, yes it does.
Usually a .38 with the serial numbers removed, sometimes a .45 as an "equalizer" (NJ/NYC people know), and if you're lucky, a car battery, a set of jumper cables, and a bucket of water.
Perhaps I've said too much...
Fuggetaboutit...
Penny's dropped - I'm guessing it had more to do with old arcade machines, specifically the fortune tellers, which would dispense a fortune or some wise saying.
There's also the more macabre association with the practice of placing pennies over the eyes of a dead person. If the penny dropped it would mean that they hadn't been dead after all..... or else they had come back to.... life! (for added effect inserts sinister, ghostly laughter, plus sound of owl hooting in background)......
from
this rather interesting site on the origins of English sayings ...
Penny: If someone says "the penny has dropped", then they mean that they finally, and often suddenly, understand a situation. I have found no authenticated origin for the saying, but it must surely come from old Victorian slot machines, where a game would only work when the penny had dropped.
In France we say "manier la carotte et le baton" (use the carrot and the stick) and that means using both a promised reward (carrot) and a threat (stick) to make the donkey walk.
Sometimes French and English share the same expressions !
French popular wisdom : fog in November, Christmas in December ! ;)
Sometimes French and English share the same expressions !
You know I had a feeling you might say that, but then I thought 'same sayings, no, not really - it was just a touch of deja vu.'
That aside Mr B - tell us some other French sayings that have an unusual background to them...(preferably with translation into English!)
my favorite French expression: Le petit mort -- the little death.
“un croque-mort” (an undertaker) :
“croque ” means “to bite”, “mort ” means “dead”
In the past people used to check if the body was dead, in biting one of his toes.
“qui dort dine” : “who is sleeping, is eating”
Everybody thinks it means that when we sleep we don’t feel hungry and don’t need to eat.
In fact, in the past it was an advert for hostels :
Customers were paying for the bed and the diner was free.
“L’habit ne fait pas le moine” : “the habit doesn’t make the monk”
means : don’t judge people according to their appearance.
“Pierre qui roule n’amasse pas mousse” :
“Pierre qui roule ” : “A rolling stone ”
“ n’amasse pas mousse ” : “isn’t covered with moss ”
(no link with Mick Jagger and Kate Moss)
means we never become rich if we too often change of country, job….
“Quand on veut noyer son chien, on dit qu’il a la rage”
“When we want to drown one’s dog, we say he’s got the rage”
means : when we want Saddam’s oil, we say he’s got mass murder weapons.
“Qui sème le vent récolte la tempête” :
“Who sows the wind harvests the storm”
means : somebody who causes disorder shouldn’t be surprised to get a disaster
“un(e) de perdu(e), dix de retrouvé(e) ” :
“one lost, ten back ”
often said when your boy(girl)friend goes away :
you’ll soon find several better occasions.
“une hirondelle ne fait pas le printemps ” :
“a swallow/martin doesn’t make springtime ”
means : you can’t judge on only one example
“c’est l’hôpital qui se moque de la charité ” :
“it’s the hospital which laughs at the charity”
when we laugh at somebody else who shares the same failings.
“avoir des cornes ” : “to have horns ” :
to be cuckold
“ça ne casse pas 3 pattes à un canard ” :
“that doesn’t break 3 legs at a duck” :
There’s nothing extraordinary
“passer du coq à l’âne ” :
“change from rooster to donkey”
means : changing the subject of the conversation
The Alternative French Dictionary
(good examples but be careful in using it with French people, sometimes it’s very rude)
my favorite French expression: Le petit mort -- the little death.
Yes, more exactly, it's "La petite mort" :blush:
Yes, more exactly, it's "La petite mort"
d'oh... that's my problem -- I've got the gender wrong!
and then there's the
French postcard : British slang for a condom.
Nobody wants to assume condom invention.
In France we say "Capotte anglaise" (English condom) despite Condom is a city in the south of France where condoms were invented.
Eek. Be careful when ordering the duck for dinner.
canard = duck (if I recall correctly)
connard = something else.
“that doesn’t break 3 legs at a duck”
Sounds like something some of our recent newbies might say.
Pierre qui roule n’amasse pas mousse” :
“Pierre qui roule ” : “A rolling stone ”
“ n’amasse pas mousse ” : “isn’t covered with moss ”
(no link with Mick Jagger and Kate Moss)
means we never become rich if we too often change of country, job….
Kate Moss, no. But Mick Jagger, yes. The Rolling Stones were named after the English equivalent ("A rolling stone gathers no moss"). Only gathering moss is usually considered a bad thing, so the English expression has the opposite meaning, at least in the US.
connard = bastard
A lot of good french expressions : in French only, but very good.
"jeter le bébé avec l'eau du bain " : "Throwing the baby with the bath"
Losing the main thing.
"aller dans le mur" : "to go in the wall"
to go in the wrong way
"Avoir la tête dans le cul (dans le gaz, dans le pâté) " :
"to have one's head in the ass (gas, pâté)"
"Ne pas avoir les yeux en face des trous" :
"to have not one's eyes in front of the holes"
means : to be bad awake
“avoir les dents longues” : “to have long teeth”
to be ambitious
“Avoir le cul bordé de nouilles” :
“To have one’s ass surrounded by noodles”
to have chance (very popular)
“Ça m'en touche une sans faire bouger l'autre” :
“It touches me one without moving the other”
I don’t care (very popular)
“Comme papa dans maman” : “Like daddy in mummy”
easy thing to do (very popular)
”Con (comme un balai, comme la lune) ” :
”To be an ass like a broom (to sweep), like the moon”
To be an ass
“Avoir un balai dans le cul” : “To have a broom in the ass”
To be rigid, sexually frozen
“Être à voile et à vapeur ” : “To be sailed and steamed”
to be bisexual
“ Fumer la moquette ” : “To smoke the carpet” :
to be under drug addiction
“Il n'y a pas photo” : “There’s no photo” :
There’s no doubt
“Lèche-cul” : “To lick someone’s ass” :
to play up to
“Péter les plombs / un plomb ” : “To break a fuse” :
To become mad
“Pisser dans un violon” : “To pee in a violin” :
To do useless things
“Tiré par les cheveux” : “Pulled by the hair” :
intricate
“Casser les pieds / les couilles” : “To break feet / balls” :
to bug someone
“Avoir le feu au cul ! ” : “To have ass in fire” :
to be in a hurry / to be sexually obsessed
“Avoir un poil dans la main” : “To have hair in one’s hand ” :
To be lazy
“Avoir d'autres chats à fouetter ” : “To have other cats to whip ” :
To have something else to do
“Aéroport à mouches ” : “fly (insect) airport ” :
Bald head
Wow - there really are a lot of similarities in colloquial language - although I suppose I should expect that with older phrases....
The only unusual phrase I remember in French is "Ciel mon mari", which literally means sky my husband (I think) and is an exclamation of surprise.... no idea why though.
Amazing stuff Bargalunan! - we deal with some Paris-based vegoil traders and will be having some great fun dropping the odd phrase in now and again!
"Ciel mon mari" is traditionally used in comic theatre when the woman is in bed with her lover. When her husband arrives at the door she cries "Ciel mon mari" (sky my husband) and quickly hide her lover in the wardrobe or on the balcony...
Have great fun Cyclefrance ! Just be careful when using popular expression. :)
There's also "argot" (slang), "verlan" (back slang) cf
The Alternative French Dictionary
verlan = "à l'envers (backward) / à lanver = verlan"
meuf (say mef) = femme = woman
keum (say kem) = mec = guy
laisse béton = laisse tomber = Let it drop!
In French suburbs, teenagers speak in verlan, it's quite difficult to understand them but they are very inventive.
"“Quand on veut noyer son chien, on dit qu’il a la rage”
“When we want to drown one’s dog, we say he’s got the rage”
means : when we want Saddam’s oil, we say he’s got mass murder weapons."
:rotflol: :thankyou: :thumb:
French popular wisdom : fog in November, Christmas in December ! ;)
We say: Fog in November, you're in Fresno :neutral:
A Japanese friend told me a saying about cheapskates:
"He's got short arms and deep pockets"
Then there is also: nsfw
http://www.insultmonger.com/swearingWow. That's even better than Skritch's Multilingual Swear List.
bargalunan, i've been searching for french slang for YEARS, but could only find old outdated sayings. thanks! :)
As plthijinx said in "word association" :
"Je me fais chier" / "Tu me fais chier" : "I/You make me shit"
I'm bored to death / You're boring me to death (very common)
about cheapskates :
"Avoir des oursins dans les poches" : "To have sea-urchins in the pockets"
"Avoir les doigts crochus" : "To have hooked fingers"
About
http://www.insultmonger.com/swearing/french.htm
One third of them are not well known or very intricate. Meanwhile most of them are real insults. Be careful !
Very common examples :
"Va te faire enculer" : "Go get fucked up the ass"
" conneries " : " bullshit "
" Emmerdeur " : " shitwit "
" Salaud / Con / Connard / Enculé " : " bastard "
" Pute / putain / Conne / Connasse / Enculée " : " whore "
" Trou du cul " : " Asshole "
" J'en ai rien à foutre " : " I don't give a fuck " : I don’t care
I rather like :
“On t'a bercé trop près du mur " : " Was your cradle rocked too close to the wall? "
" Enculer les mouches" : " to fuck flies " : to complicate
But :
“Faire l'amour" : "To have sex with"
“Ce n’est pas tes affaires " : "It’s not your business"
“Ne tente pas le diable!" : "Don’t tempt the devil" : Don't push your luck!
“Ça craint!" : " It sucks! "
aren’t swears
etc…
An author is famous in France for writing good detective stories with a lot of very inventive slang (most of time about sex) : Frédéric Dard / San Antonio
San Antonio
(Clic Oeuvres and see some covers... :) )
bargalunan, i've been searching for french slang for YEARS, but could only find old outdated sayings. thanks! :)
A gift especially for you. I'm sure you will appreciate
see :)
How could I forget:
"He/She could talk the hind leg off a donkey"
I've always wondered what the H stood for... Holy?
I'm having kittens here waiting to find out... :)
Anybody want a kitten?
Surely H for Hexametrous. Roll the phrase off your tongue: "Je-sus Hexametrous Christ!" Now doesn't that just knock your hearers back on their heels when delivered right?
I'd take the "Ciel!" as an interjection. I'd write it "Ciel! Mon mari!"
How about "You couldn't make it up....."
Really?
Because I'm pretty sure I could
Bob's yer uncle!
Did that come from a longer version?
'Bob's yer uncle, Fanny's yer aunt'
I think it was often used to confirm that something had been repaired or done properly and to someone else's satisfaction, a sort of recognition factor that it was back the way you it used to be and you'd recognise it as such and not really remember that it had been broken in the first place.
There's another one which I guess came from the longer saying:
'Not on your aunt Fanny' and also 'Not on you Nelly' both of which were used as the equivalent of 'no way' and meaning you wouldn't do that to a close and dearly loved relative (perhaps...?)
This may count as weird to most Frenchmen, Barga: a Légion Étrangère-ism that the US Army would translate as "get off your ass": se démerder, just about always used in the imperative, démerdes-toi, démerdez-vous.
This may count as weird to most Frenchmen, Barga: a Légion Étrangère-ism that the US Army would translate as "get off your ass": se démerder, just about always used in the imperative, démerdes-toi, démerdez-vous.
Really popular saying often used by everybody in France. (means "do it yourself, and don't bother me"). But don't say it to your boss.
Quite close from "Bouges ton cul !" "Move your ass" that means "act !"
We have "Get your ass in gear". :D :driving: :rollhappy
We have "Get your ass in gear". :D :driving: :rollhappy
Aaahh, yes - AIG!
Here's one that's related and goes around the shipping fraternity. Meaning-wise it's the state that precedes and precipitates the 'get your AIG' instruction. It abbreviates to TIBAMIN, which translates as 'thumb in bum and mind in neutral!'
As a tech support rep - we had lots of PICNIC errors.
Problem's In Chair, Not In Computer
also
get the lead out
use your head for something besides a hat rack
get your head out of the sand
Get your head out of your ass!
I will stomp a mudhole in your ass and walk it dry!
You got beat like a red-headed stepchild.
Tore up from the floor up.
Really popular saying often used by everybody in France. (means "do it yourself, and don't bother me"). But don't say it to your boss.
it sounds like another popular saying in your area would be "ah, fuck the curfew, let's burn some cars."
Here's an nice medieval English one: 'He was hoist by his own petard' meaning he stuffed himself on that one - 'scored an own goal' having a similar meaning.
Heh, petard itself is etymologically pretty rude!
Heh, petard itself is etymologically pretty rude!
Interesting (some might say disturbing!) how farting seems to creep into my contributions all too often, whether consciously or sub-consciously - must be some Freudian reason for it all I suppose....
I always understood that to be hoist by one's own petard was to be run up one's own flagpole, as it were.
In fact its closer to being a suicide bomber!
My mother always says, "Oh! Banana Oil!" instead of "Fuuuck!" Must be a Canook thing. She also cheers the soup: "C'mon, soup! Rah, rah, soup!" which is supposed to encourage it to get hot faster. She sings this while pointing her big wooden spoon at the pot. Like a diving rod.
Clearly, my problems are genetic.
I am inspired to try the soup cheer. But it may lead to the soup boo.
as clear as mud in a beer bottle
dunno if this has been posted but
GOING OFF LIKE A FROG IN A SOCK
i just like it
Interesting (some might say disturbing!) how farting seems to creep into my contributions all too often, whether consciously or sub-consciously - must be some Freudian reason for it all I suppose....
"Gene's Beans, they're good for your heart
The more you eat 'em, the more you fart
The more you fart, the better you feel
So eat Gene's Beans with every meal!"
Beans beans the magical fruit,
The more you eat the more you toot,
The more you eat the better you feel,
So eat your beans with every meal!
[semi hijack]
Funny bumpersticker this morning:
Have You Flogged Your Crew Today?
[/hehe]
My tonsils are floating. (hint to friends when you need to take a wizz).
I never heard that as tonsils. Always "back teeth". Perhap this is because I am from the generation that mostly had their tonsils yanked at the first signs of infection?
I still have mine, incidentally. One of the lucky few. I didn't want the ice cream that badly.
Now, when one's tonsils (or back teeth) are floating ... why do you have to see a man about a horse?
... why do you have to see a man about a horse?
i, too, have often wondered that. It's a saying common amongst my more rustic companions.
ps-to my thinking--the more rustic, the better!
... why do you have to see a man about a horse?
The only reason I can come up with is that placing bets on horses in public places used to be illegal (still is?) when this saying developed. It's just a way for a man to say he's off to do something private for a few minutes (could be followed by 'I'll be back in a couple of shakes'* which might gve the game away (shaking being a required finishing action!)- can't see a macho man using the 'I'm off to spend a penny' alternative. Horse racing's for men, men do manly things...!
* think the full saying was: 'I'll be back in a couple of shakes of a donkey's tail' (before you ask, no I don't, except it's something that doesn't take long to do....)
Two shakes of a lambs tale. ;)
why do you have to see a man about a horse?
I'm more familiar with "going to see a man about a dog", although that also fits in with Cyclefrance's betting theory.
A South African friend of mine used to say "That went down with hooks on" if he hadn't particularly enjoyed something to eat or drink (usually the first pint after a hangover...)
I'm more familiar with "going to see a man about a dog", although that also fits in with Cyclefrance's betting theory.
A South African friend of mine used to say "That went down with hooks on" if he hadn't particularly enjoyed something to eat or drink (usually the first pint after a hangover...)
I wonder if there's a loose connection with the fact that the dogs (greyhounds ) start off by being put into a line of stalls.....(and horses too, these days, although I think when this saying first started they used to line up behind a tape that was raised...)
"Guess what?"
"Chicken butt!"
Don't ask. Or, ask all you want. I have *no idea* how/where that one came from.
"guess why"
"chicken thigh"
i don't know either, BigV.
"guess how"
"up a cow"
ewwww.
And Ian Fleming having a bit of fun with a phrase, shouted from offstage, as it were, in the background of a James Bond novel that has Bond taking the cure in a spa that gave plenty of enemas: "See you later, Irrigator!"
Well, it was racy about nineteen-sixty.
"In the US we say "happy as a clam". In Mexico it's "happy as a worm."
In the UK, we say Happy as Larry or I have even heard ( though a little archaic) "Happy as a sandboy"
In Mexico it's "happy as a worm."
so would you be -- if you spent your life in a bottle of Mezcal: :mg:
"Avoir la gueule de bois" : "to have a wood face" : to be sick after being drunk
"Appuyer sur le champignon" : "to push the mushroom" : to accelerate
"être haut comme trois pommes" : "to be high as 3 apples" : to be small
"se creuser la tête" : "to dig one's head" : to think
"se mettre le doigt dans l'oeil" : "to put one's finger in the eye" : to be wrong / make a mistake
"tomber dans les pommes" : "to fall in the apples" : to blank out
"poser un lapin" : "to put a rabbit" : to miss a rendez-vous
"avoir un coup de foudre" : "to feel a lightning" : to love at first sight
Happy as a pig in clover (or shit)
One of my grandmother's (and therefore exceedingly old):
'In and out like a fart in a cullender'
Similar for a fussily busy person:
'Up and down like a yo-yo'
'In and out like a fart in a cullender'
Is that typo or a difference in spelling from the american "colander"? Just wondering...
Is that typo or a difference in spelling from the american "colander"? Just wondering...
Well, I must admit that I spelled it that way, thought it looked all right, but wasn't 100% sure so checked on the internet and was told that it was an
OK spelling (but so was colander.....). The strain is telling on us both!!
snip... The strain is telling on us both!!
OH! The humanity!
I love in and out like a fart in a colander. I can't wait to use it!
Once we'd reached our teens my parents didn't watch their mouths quite as closely. The following were brought to mind by the up & down phrase & I think you can work out the subsequent theme:
Up & down like a whore's knickers
A whore's breakfast - alcohol before midday
A whore's bath - washing pits & bits in the sink
Like a whore at a christening - surprisingly decorous behaviour
Smells like a tart's boudoir - usually used about men wearing any scent but Brut for Men
"Come Hell or high water."
Going to Hell in a handbasket.
Dead to rights.
Anyone know the origin of this?
Exactly where or what is the "get-go?"
I think its the same thing as "right off the bat"
"Come Hell or high water."
No idea, but it has reminded me of a good (well I think so - one of those with a re-usable punchline) if somewhat old joke.
Guy dies goes to heaven. St Peter at the gates to heaven asks his name. Guy tells him, Peter checks and says your not on the list, sorry fellah, you'll have to try downstairs.
Guy goes down to the Devil, same thing, so guy asks where he goes now. It's the goblins for you says Satan and directs him down some steps.
Steps seem to lead for miles but eventually they end and guy sees three goblins each standing by a door.
Guy stops at first goblin and asks what the deal is. Goblin explains that he has to choose to stay in the room behind one of the doors. Thing is though if he refuses a room then he can't go back after.
So goblin opens door to first room and guy sees all these people screaming in flames. No thanks he says and moves to the next goblin. This goblin opens his door to reveal all these people up to their necks in in water. No thanks again says the guy not fancying that one bit either (see Wolf, this is where I got the Hell and High Water connection...)
Third goblin says well, you've had your chances. He opens the third door and pushes the guy in. It's a strange room. Full of people standing in human excrement (OK, shit!). Funny thing is they're all happily smiling and drinking cups of tea from very nice bone china cups and saucers. But the smell....!
Oh, no, thinks the guy, wrong decision, and then he's handed a cup of tea himself. Hmmm, thinks the guy, sipping his tea, not a bad cup. He sips some more. Not bad at all, and, I suppose, although the smells a bit heavy, I will soon get used to it. And sure enough 5 minutes later he's beginning to feel OK about the situation, he's adjusting quite nicely. Just then however a klaxon sounds and a loud voice calls through the loud-speaker. OK, guys and gals, tea-break's over now, back on your heads!
OK, perhaps these sorts of jokes do lose a little something over the years....
"Come Hell or high water."
= At any cost
God willing and the creek don't rise? = if it ain't too much trouble
The cat's got your tongue.
I'm guessing this has to do with the quiet stealthiness of cats?
I think it has to do with when the cat was in at night stealing your soul, it took your voice for good measure.
I heard a good one last night ... not a weird saying per se, but I'd never heard it put quite this way before.
Wolf: So, do you have an address?
Homeless Heroin Addict: I use my parents' address for mail and stuff, but I'm living in an abandominium in North Philly.
I'll be jiggered up a hemlock.
WTFK?
A friend from New Hampshire says this. On the other hand he also says with a leer
"Hey sunshine, ever been boned up the shitter?"
Then he cackles with laughter.
Other than that, he's totally normal.
looks like he's been beat with an ugly stick
I feel like a chittlering with the shit slung out of it
Enough of this jiggery pokery(?)
REVISION:
Can't get enough of this jiggery pokery
I feel like a chittlering with the shit slung out of it[/QUOTE]
That is a southern expression for feeling wrung out. Chitterlings or more properly chittlins' are hog intestines that are boiled or fried and served with rice. To make sure they are clean before cooking you squeeze them top to bottom like a tube of tooth paste then (if your making them in the yard as is proper) sling them to get everything else out before you cut them up.
Smells like a charrnel house when cooking but not a bad meal.
How...... different(?!)
Reminds me of the local French sausage called an
andouillette (please don't look at the link if you are about to have, are having, or just have had your Thanksgiving dinner - it wouldn't be fair to the person who has slaved over cooking it for you!), that I unfortunately ordered in a logis outside Poitiers. Looked great but was basically the roughly chopped intestines of a pig and not much else. Produced one of those chewing moments that sometimes arise when eating meat - you know, the ones that never seem to end because the item in your mouth never seems to get to the right size that you fancy attempting to swallow it.
I've tried "chittlins"... They wouldn't be too bad if you didn't have to smell them cooking. Most housewives forbid cooking them indoors. When cooking outdoors you can smell them for a half mile. I guess "once you get past the smell you got it licked" which would be another weird saying.
"Hope to shit in your flat hat" == I agree completely.
This one is best when yelled in a crowded area, such as a mall, a store, or church:
"HEY BABY, EVER HAVE YOUR ASSHOLE LICKED BY A FATMAN IN AN OVERCOAT?!?"
The reactions are to die for.
(Kudos to Kevin Smith.)
My personal favorite is to stand near the line of kids and parents waiting to get their picture taken with the Easter Bunny ... "Wow, look at the load of Christian kids waiting to sit on the lap of the Pagan Fertility Symbol!"
A friend from New Hampshire says this. On the other hand he also says with a leer
"Hey sunshine, ever been boned up the shitter?"
Then he cackles with laughter.
Other than that, he's totally normal.
Sounds like a guy from Maine I went to college with.... he'd threaten to "SKULL fuck yeh!!" for even the most minor infraction.... and then the cackling laughter...
Crazier than a rat in a tin shithouse
Grinning like a mad frog in a bucket/ Mad as a frog in a bucket
I don't like the cut of your jibb!
This is specific to my place of business: The rat turd does not fall far from the kumquat.
...I don't like the cut of your jibb!
That should take the wind out of his sails
when suffering from a hangover:
"I feel like someone beat my ass with a sack of catfish"
This one is best when yelled in a crowded area, such as a mall, a store, or church:
"HEY BABY, EVER HAVE YOUR ASSHOLE LICKED BY A FATMAN IN AN OVERCOAT?!?"
That did make me laugh, though it brought back disturbing memories. Walking through the town centre on a busy shopping Saturday when I was 15, a respectable looking man (not fat, no overcoat) approached me and leaned in to say confidentially in my ear, "I'd love to taste your arsehole." Then walked away as if he'd just bid me good-day.
My friends - sadly - didn't believe me, although they admitted I went white then bright red. I do wonder if he had a thing about skinny girls in baggy jumpers & ankle length skirts, or whether it was just a power trip because I was such an unlikely candidate.
Busier than a two tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs
Busier than a one legged man in an ass kicking contest
Busier than a one armed paper hanger
Nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs
(though I've never heard that one, just read it - does it count?)
Nervous as a pregnant nun
scared as a 10 year old on report card day
too broke to pay attention
like a cat on a hot tin roof
up the creek without a paddle
weak as water
One for the festive season (if you know what I mean):
'Eyes like pissholes in the snow'
(on a fine booty, while walking): like two hound dogs wrasslin in a sack
(on a less toned female form): looks like a bag of cats headed for the river
Useless as tits on a boar.
As busy as a one-legged man at an ass-kicking contest.
"Barking Spiders"
My hubby says that everytime he farts.
Obviously I married him for his humour.
LOL - my kids use that term! They got it from my brothers... also known for their humor!!
Sorry but Rusty was not played by Robert Blake, although Blake was one of the Little Rascals. Rusty was played by Lee Aaker.
http://www.tv.com/the-adventures-of-rin-tin-tin/show/4319/summary.html
--------------------
Just for the trivia buffs, "Rin Tin Tin's boy", Rusty, was played by Robert Blake. Later, he also played "Little Beaver" to another Western hero, Red Ryder.
BTW: Tonto got his name by virtue of the Tonto Indian tribe. I'm not sure where they were located, but the Tonto tribe was part of the Apache Nation. I think there is even a Tonto National Forest in Arizona. Since the Lone Ranger story was supposed to start in Texas, it would be interesting to find out why the author of the original book chose a Native American who wouldn't normally have been anywhere near there, but the white man had a knack for messing up facts when these "Sage Brush Romances" became popular around the turn of the 19th Century. More BTW: Apaches never wore the kind of buckskin outfit that Tonto traditionally wears in the movies, that garb was more like what Kit Carson and the Fremont Scouts wore in the 1840's. Jay Silverheels is also using a hairstyle which is distinctly Navajo; Apaches wore their hair straight and long.
As to why the tribe ended up with the name "tonto" in the first place, we can only imagine that some administrator for New Spain or a mission padre who was exasperated with trying to get more work out of the Indians they essentially enslaved remarked "Mirad a esos tontos!" when some of the people shuffled by, and the derogatory comment stuck.
"Nervous as a whore in church"
When you have to clean that up a little it becomes.....
"Nervous as a lady of the evening in a house of worship"
Fit as a butcher's dog.
Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs (expression of surprise).
more meat on a butchers pencil
It is carrot and stick. The phrase implies reward for doing well and punishment for doing poorly.
Sorry, which one is the punishment?:eyebrow:
'Time to climb the wooden hill' - from my father-in-law to my wife as a child, when time to go upstairs to bed....
A navalism about the wholly incompetent: "He could fuck up a one-car funeral."
An expression derived from a Robert Fulghum story: "Fishing for groundsquirrels."
'Time to climb the wooden hill' - from my father-in-law to my wife as a child, when time to go upstairs to bed....
My parents always used to say "Up tha dances" for bed time. Was a long time before I realised they weren't saying 'Up the dances'. Figured dances was a word for stairs. :P
Was a long time before I realised they weren't saying 'Up the dances'.
What
were they saying? :confused:
Up tha (you) dances. Tha = thou or thee. It survives in little bits of the Northern dialects.
"Barking Spiders"
My hubby says that everytime he farts.
Obviously I married him for his humour.
Works also for burps. More effective if one slams one's hand onto the nearest wall and then blames the "Barking Spider."
An expression derived from a Robert Fulghum story: "Fishing for groundsquirrels."
You've never seen this, then?Only heard about it. And Fulghum... he caught one.
Of course this story would appear in a book called It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It.
I think the phrase "Kick yer ass" is pretty weird. It has nothing to do with an actual kicking of the buttockal area.
It does sometimes...I've seen it happen once or twice.
You've never seen this, then?
I read through this - easily amused, am I. The best part of the whole thing is at the end. After all the "experimentation" and "disproving of theory," we get this:
"In the rare cases where this does succeed, the subject becomes freaked out by the experience and runs away."
So - is "freaked out" the scientific term for it?
I heart squirrels.
How about 'stick your oar in' - meaning to put your point of view across without being asked, or to meddle when not invited - as in 'trust you to stick your oar in'
It is carrot and stick. The phrase implies reward for doing well and punishment for doing poorly.
From what I understand the meaning is to have the carrot tied to the stick ,thus, making a beast of burden walk towards the reward aka the carrot, but out of reach due to the stick.
Here is some more random things:
Sweeting like a pig-pigs don't sweat.
better version: Sweeting like an illegal[immigrant] in a trailer
It is all Greek to me. -Many scholarly materials were first written and studied in Greek or Latin.
Alternative version: It is all Manderen to me.
Smart ass- Biblical reference to Balum and the wise donkey
Ship
High
In
Transit
This acronym refers to fertilizer because the methane gas that builds up is dangerous so it must be shipped high in transit.
"Going to the John" in world war I the most use brand of toilet in Europe was sold by John Crapper, when the Americans were there they have never seen that kind of toilet and simply called it what was printed on it.
Mad as a hatter - A part of the hat making process called to for the use of Mercury which can lead to mental illness
Read this in the Tribune recently: "Out in left field"
West Side Park, where the Chicago Cubs played before Wrigley, had a mental hospital across the street from left field.
From what I understand the meaning is to have the carrot tied to the stick ,thus, making a beast of burden walk towards the reward aka the carrot, but out of reach due to the stick.
That's what I always thought, but we discussed it at length sometime ago and I was overruled. :o
'I could eat the guts of low flying duck' - meaning if the duck flies to low, I'll reach up and bite it as it flies over...at least, that's what I've always thought it means.
That's what I always thought, but we discussed it at length sometime ago and I was overruled. :o
Me too. To the extent I have now described a political party as being more about the stick than the carrot. Not a bad phrase, but certainly doesn't fit with my original understanding of the term.
wait? what? I thought the carrot was representative of positive reinforcement and the stick negative???
Unless the carrot is tied to the stick just out of reach in which case I agree as the "beast of burden" moves toward the carrot it remains out of reach.
Those are two different things though.
It can refer to two different things.
just not at the same time as they are completely unrelated
Am currently hiding in my bedroom whilst Mom & Popdigr are being [strike]assailed[/strike] visited by one of the Auntiesdigr.
Auntiedigr was talking about someone when I overheard:
He's so dumb he don't know beans from taters.
I think she was referring to The Donald.
I hear a saying in North Carolina once in a while. He has more money than Van Camps has beans. Anything can be used besides the word money . Children, cars, land, homes, even cats.
tarheel
"He's got more _____ than Carter's got pills."
A reference to Carter's Little Liver Pills.
[ATTACH]58085[/ATTACH]
I'm sure I didn't have to explain Carter's Little Liver Pills for you and Bruce, Tarheel...:crone:
:D
Yes, I know that expression well.