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Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: catspaw49 Date: 08 Apr 99 - 01:15 PM Ya' know, I have freely admitted to the United Staes messing up the language, but somewhere along the line the English need to take a hit too. Rorty Crankle = Happy Corner? Mucky Duck? C'mon now ... 'fess up! catspaw |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: AlistairUK Date: 08 Apr 99 - 01:18 PM I used to frequent two pubs one known as the the Frog and Rubarhb and the other as the Newt and Cucumber. Anyway here in Brazil there is a certain type of bus called a "Catercorner" which will stop anywhere as long as it's on the corner of a main junction of a busy road. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Barbara Date: 08 Apr 99 - 01:25 PM Alistair, we used to use "done a bunk" here to mean "made off with". Heres a wonderful nineteenth century word that means the same thing in reference to money: absquatulate. Here are some other coloquallisms: slick as greased owl shit sweet face -- say whatever the other person wants to hear (as in, 'He's just sweet facing her') I've heard local builders use 'gnat's ass' and 'c**t hair' to describe taking just a smidge off a plank.
And then there's that list that was circulating a while ago from the computer folks. Had 'idea hampster', 'prairie dogging at the cube farm', (popping up of heads to see where the disturbance is), going 'postal'. buncha others. Anyone?
One of our local farmers tells us to plant when the oak leaves are as big as squirrel's ears.
What did your area call a "Chinese Junk Boat Fire Drill", that teenage car game that involved ejecting and rearranging all the passengers at a redlight, hopefully before it changed?
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: AlistairUK Date: 08 Apr 99 - 01:34 PM I was chatting to an american guy last week, I met him in a bar nearby he is on holiday and I took the opportunity to speak my native language to him. It wasn't until I saw his eyes glazing over that I thought that the conversation was boring him ( my conversations tend to have that effect if I haven't spoken english for a while). I stooped and asked if he was okay and he said, "I'm sorry (he is from Texas) but I sorta lost interest abround the 5th sentence as I couldn't understand haf o what you was sayin'"Funny how you don't realise that not all english is the same english.
I'm shagged out=tired (or just shagged) |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Bert Date: 08 Apr 99 - 01:45 PM Cats, Rorty does mean happy but has tipsy, bawdy connotations - a great word. And the word crankle surves in crank which is a metal bar that has a corner or bend in it. And talking of bent, Steve, our term for "queer as a nine bob note" was "bent as a box of top hats" Bert. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: AlistairUK Date: 08 Apr 99 - 01:47 PM One button short of an overcoat and Irn Bru was always said to "Put lead in your pencil"so me granda always told me. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Bert Date: 08 Apr 99 - 01:53 PM Ah!, talking of GrandParents, My grandma used to say "He wouldn't know his dick from his thumb if it didn't have a nail on it" and if someone was scruffy she would say "He looks like a bundle of arseholes tied up nasty" But my Mother on the other hand would say, of the samy guy "He looks like a sack of shit tied up with string" |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: AlistairUK Date: 08 Apr 99 - 01:56 PM my great aunt would say a bag of taters tied up ugly. But she was from the refined part of Manchester. If such a place exists. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: MMario Date: 08 Apr 99 - 02:08 PM I suspect it's a VERY local idiom, but "watching for subs (submarines)" was the local term for necking in my home town on Cape Cod. (Still is, according to relatives) The term for "soft Drinks" was split more along age lines then anything else... the oldest folk called it "tonic" - most of the adults called it "soda" - unless they were "newcomers" - who called it "pop" - and most of the youngers ones called it "coke" 'course I'm 25 years out of date now.... MMario |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Cara Date: 08 Apr 99 - 02:43 PM Catspaw-- You're right, I am from Nerk. There are people there, even in my family, who have almost southern accents. Never could figure out why. Speaking of towns, how about Lima (like the bean) Ohio? Must have been named after Peru, so why the name switch? Murphy's of D.C., a pub where I work,has a sister establishment in Lima, OH and people try to correct my pronunciation all the time, to the Peru way. Is Bill Isenhart a band teacher at Roosevelt Junior high School? What town do you live in? I bet I have a relative living there. Older people in Nerk tend to pronounce days of the week differently--"Tuesday" becomes "Tuesdee" etc. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: catspaw49 Date: 08 Apr 99 - 02:56 PM Cara, Bill and I are old friends clear back to high school days although we went to different high schools. We'd meet at lots of All county and all-state bands and orchestra things and I first met Roofus at an all state seminar in Columbus. They both were clarinetists, I played bassoon. They both became music majors at Capital, I went south to the hills of Kentucky. Met them again, now married, at about age 24 and we shared a lot of mutual interests--sailing, motorcycles. They are two of my closest friends today. I moved back here from Atlanta about 12 years ago and for reasons to long to explain, we moved to Bremen, a tiny village on Rt.37 about halfway between Lancaster and New Lex. catspaw |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: catspaw49 Date: 08 Apr 99 - 02:59 PM Cara, Bill and I are old friends clear back to high school days although we went to different high schools. We'd meet at lots of All county and all-state bands and orchestra things and I first met Roofus at an all state seminar in Columbus. They both were clarinetists, I played bassoon. They both became music majors at Capital, I went south to the hills of Kentucky. Met them again, now married, at about age 24 and we shared a lot of mutual interests--sailing, motorcycles. They are two of my closest friends today. I moved back here from Atlanta about 12 years ago and for reasons to long to explain, we moved to Bremen, a tiny village on Rt.37 about halfway between Lancaster and New Lex. catspaw |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: AlistairUK Date: 08 Apr 99 - 03:38 PM 'Paw you multiple personalities are forgetting things and send of posts twice. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: katlaughing Date: 08 Apr 99 - 05:23 PM I love this. You guys make me laugh so much! MMario: I'd forgotten, my dear, dear mother-in-law used to ask me if I'd like a "tonic" meaning a soda pop; that was in NH. Cara: another one I just shook my head at, esp. living one town over from Groton (Graw-ton) CT where the Navy is BIG. People there were always getting trasnferred to Norfolk, VA. NOONE ever pronounced it any other way except Nor-fuck and it was always said very fast with the latter part kind of cut off towards the end. Out here everybody says Nor foak, BUT they DON'T say "Foak OFF!" In CT there is also a town named Lebanon, but they pronounce it Le buh nun with no accents on any of the syllables. we'd always called the country Le bah non. Catspaw: since you live in Bremen, does that make you THE town musician of Bremen? My kids want to know ***Grin***. Also, nice to know there is a corner just for us "cats", eh? katlaughing....really! |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Pete M Date: 08 Apr 99 - 06:25 PM It amazing isn't it how phrases you use every day go completely out of your head as soon as you try and write them down. Plonker was always kiss in Kent when I were a lad. And "Die yer bastard" is in common use when someone sneezes. Get yer knickers in a twist = become agitated. Who pulled your chain = who asked your opinion. knuckle sandwich = bunch of fives = smack in the gob = require the attention of a dentist as a result of an altercation. Glasgie farewell = the action of applying ones forehead forcefully to anothers nose. Birmingham/Irish screwdriver = hammer In Devon "where's ee to?" = where is he/she NZ Push shit uphill with a pointed stick = thankless task Popular as a pork chop at Jewish wedding = self explanatory As much use as a spare prick at a wedding = self explanatory, Went down like a lead pengiun = rather unsuccessful attempt at humour. Maori PT = have a kip = sleep/rest horizontally Talking of brown hatters and arsehole bandits, I believe the use of the term "gay" for a queer goes back to the nineteenth century. If we get into military slang then there is a whole new range which seems to be largely service specific, US/NZ/UK matelots understand each others slang far better than they do that of pongos from their own country. Two that are also in common civilian usage in the UK are: Can't hack it = unable to stand the pace Loose your bottle = It is the ultimate insult in the services, but is actually quite hard to define. Its a sort of combination of showing excessive fear, not performing adequately because of fear and letting your mates down, but not precisely any of these. Keep it up Pete M
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: AlistairUK Date: 08 Apr 99 - 06:32 PM Then we come to bottle our= much the same as lose your bottle Glasgow kiss=the aformentioned forehead meets opponents nose
on the metaphores for homosexuality:
Masturbation: when something is 'cack' it means that something is rubbish where I come from. I also learned a new one that was going around the UK a year or so ago, that when something is 'pants' it's cool. hmmmm...my memory is being stirred |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: bseed(charleskratz) Date: 08 Apr 99 - 07:33 PM Regarding Norfolk: My brother was in NROTC at Oregon State bu did his summer training in Norfolk. He said the sailors there had a cheer (based upon the pronunciation of Norfolk noted above): NORFOLK! NORFOLK! We're the girls of NORFOLK. We don't smoke. We don't drink. NORFOLK! NORFOLK! When I was in the air force at the end of the Korean War, stationed at K-13 (Pusan), a fighter base, GI's in the last month of their tour wore a ribbon from the neck of a bottle of Canadian Club tied in the collar button hole of their fatigues. This was a FIGMO ribbon: "Fuck it, I've Got My Orders." And, of course, there was George Carlin's famous eleven words you can't say on the radio--particularly the numerous ways f**k and s**t can be used. T**s *s r****y P***tl**s, d**'t y*u t****k? --seed |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: katlaughing Date: 08 Apr 99 - 08:13 PM Pete M: "matelots", "pongos"????? Maybe some you forgot to post the meanings of? And, "gay" for "queer"? Slang for slang? Hey, everybody! Let's hear some that might be usable in FOLKSONGS,too! Not that I don't find all of the above amusing. I DO! I DO! Thanks, katlaughing |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Pete M Date: 08 Apr 99 - 08:55 PM Hi Kat, sorry pardon, Matelot (pron Mat-low) isn't actually slang although its use is probably restricted to the Navy these days. It's a lower deck member of the RN as opposed to the Merchant service. Pongo = RN slang for a member of the Army (from the latin name for the species commonly known as the orangoutang.) Since someone has asked in another thread about Grey funnel line, Grey funnel line = The Andrew = the RN. Talking of things not being explained you have mentioned a could or so times Kat that you write an "op ed" column. What's one of them when they're at home? Pete M |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: katlaughing Date: 08 Apr 99 - 09:16 PM Thanks, Pete for the definitions. An op/ed is an opinion/editorial piece. I guess I thought most poeple on here had figured out that I do tend to be opinionated: I have an opinion on just about everything!***BG*** katl, who always thinks she has something to say! |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Barbara Date: 08 Apr 99 - 09:35 PM MMario, we called necking on the riverbank "watching the submarine races" and "getting mud for my turtle" when I went to Michigan State in the 60s. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: BK Date: 08 Apr 99 - 10:40 PM Of course wallaah & babu are from India; that's where I was living when I learned them. The Old India Hands were mainly of British heritage, their links w/India from the days of the British Raj. They always said the origin of Babu was as I quoted. In any case the modern usage, whatever it's origin, was much broader than clerk, of which there are seemingly zillions. Just about anybody could be addressed as Babu, & beggars always addressed people as that; even me, the Pukha Sahib from America. Cheers, BK |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: AlistairUK Date: 08 Apr 99 - 11:05 PM Here in BRazil they also say that when you are making out on the beach you are watching the submarine races, did you guys steal it from the Brazilians? :o) |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: BK Date: 08 Apr 99 - 11:12 PM Forgot: Punkah-wallahs have fallen on hard times since the availability of the electric fan; Punkah was the old-fashioned mannually operated "fan." Like a giant flap of cloth or woven reeds, pivoted from the ceiling, with the help of ropes or rods. course nowadays it can be used for the guy who runs a fan shop.. While I'm thinking of indian words.. consider "jungle," a near pure North Indian word, brought into English, derived from the Sanscrit Jangala. I wonder if it didn't first come into British English as slang perculiar to those who'd lived in India? Seems like some of the Cockney is doing that now in other parts of England. Slang becomes accepted, then standard... Linguistic drift.. American Black terms, like 24-7 (I work in a prison; "12-12" - done ALL my time - is popular there) are coming into the mainstresam.. Like being back in Anthropology classes. Cheers, BK |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: catspaw49 Date: 08 Apr 99 - 11:48 PM It just occurred to me, but we ought to ask Art to post some river and riverboat terms that appear in songs. Every activity has it's own language and much of it appears in song. From growing up the son of an engineman, I know some rairoad terminology which has been helpful in a lot of songs. Also sailing has a language all it's own too..."Depower the rig, we got a major blow coming on at 30 true, take another reef on the main, ease the jib halyard, take off the tweak and retrim the sheet, ease the main and put the traveller down, ease the vang; luff up til the reefs in then fall 10 off this heading." And Pete...there's a Detroit Diesel in the keel with the large bulb spinning a specially built Berklee Jet Drive with a remote cover plate. Exhausts thru the water and snorkel runs to the top of the mast. You'll never find it and we be bringin' the auld mug home!!!! catspaw |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: LEJ Date: 09 Apr 99 - 12:06 AM The Kentucky Country accent is distinctive, lacking the melodic lilt of the deep south accent. If you've ever watched an Ernest P Worrel Movie with your kids(Ernest saves Christmas) you done seen the essence of it. The "ar" sound gets thrown into a lot of words where you least expect it. " We got so dirty harse back riding that I had to clean my face with a warsh rag." My Dad used to love to descrbe an inept individual as someone who " cain't pour piss out of a boot with the directions on the heel." If you hit some gravel on a turn on your motorcycle, you could easily "get all squirrely." Monday was Mondee, and Santa was Santy. Out here in Colorado we lack an Eastern delicassee known as The White Castle Hamburger. I grew up eatin em and suffering the consequences. We used to call them "Gut-bombs" or "sliders." Some friends from Minnesota were familiar with the sliders term, but also had slang for other items on the White Castle menu; french fries were nails, and the fish sandwiches were swimmers.Another Minnesota colloquialism I like is the way buddies call each other "Big Gunnar." Like " You can say that again, Big Gunnar!" A term I use almost unconsciously is "You Bet!" For some reason this really cracks up my wife's English relations. I always wondered about the term "dead nuts", meaning exact, or in close tolerance. Always sounded obscene, but I suspect it's an engineering term.
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: katlaughing Date: 09 Apr 99 - 12:14 AM LEJ: in Colorado natives it is also a warsh rag for washcloth. My NH hubby puts an "r" on the ends of words, much as my English landlady did. My daughter's name becomes Jerush er instead of Jerusha. Law becomes the lar. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Mikal Date: 09 Apr 99 - 12:46 AM Gee, I've been waiting for someone to post some of the ones used in my childhood part of the midwest: just like Acky-vitty=Aqua Vitae, or as bitter as. Pushing a rope= dumb as one can get. Bootheel reader= perpetual loser. Skinned cat= someone always in a bad mood. Haggie= Haggis, or unwelcome in most places, (sometimes used to denote those of us of Scots origin in the area. Then there is the "cut" for any man made watercourse, "Shirty", for a field or any area surounded by trees, and the "dog", meaning any road killed animal. "Flats", mean any catfish, (flat skulled), or anyone of low morals. Gandy, for anyone who worked on steel construction, (possibly from "gandy dancer," the RR term.) And "collar" for a minister of any religion, wearing one or not. My father, the collar, would refer to a smidge, a dolp, and a wham for any small amount of anything. My crooked cousins was a "Slick as spit." My mother's cooking was piling, (in that she cooked a lot.) The local bar was always reffered to as the bucket, (in buying a bucket of beer, I supose.) These all come from living in a town full of Irish and Scots imigrants and a truck load of "sweeps", (coal miner's kids or decendants.) Anyone ever heard these? Mikal |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: searcher45 Date: 09 Apr 99 - 12:56 AM Loved this thread....some observations..... Hello to my fellow Buckeyes...a quick modification....here in Cleveland Ohio USA, Ohio's prounounced Ohio, not Ahia. Seems like Ohioans become Ahians somewhere just north of Akron....which, post WW2, earned the moniker "Little West Virginia". Reputedly, the Midwest of USA is the most accent-free region in the USA, but I'm not convinced. Some Pennsylvania colloquialisms have rooted (and it is root) in NE OH, with the most memorable being "warsh". As in "I'm going to warsh the clothes now." We've used "jagov" since childhood, and often shortened it too. An oft-used tearm of endearment was "you jag." Lima OH is indeed like the bean. And we have a Worchester, Worcester, or whatever. It's Wooster, the county seat of Wayne County, and to my knowledge, always pronounced "whuster", as oppposed to "woooooooster". Down and over in the tri-state area (Ahia, PA, WV) the town of Bellaire is pronounced "blair". I was on a horseback trail riding weekend down that way once, and asking for the nearest town to buy supplies, was told "blair". I'd never heard of the town, and not making the connection, was too embarassed to ask. Along those lines, the capital of South Dakota, Pierre, is pronounced "pier", as in "take a long walk off a short pier." As opposed to "lucky Pi-erre." Anyone from SD could confirm or refute that. Another one I recall from my youth: listening to CKLW, AM800 on your dial, out of Detroit(in southern speak, hard accent on the DE,as in DE-troit; listen to Bobby Bare's "Detroit City". In Cleveland, it's de-TROIT) Anyway, I was always mystified by one address in the commercials. The DJ would always say, "Grass-shit and 8 Mile Rd...". Turns out it was spelled Gratiot. Only sounded like grass-shit. Sorry for the long post. You got me going, but I'll close now. Bill |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: catspaw49 Date: 09 Apr 99 - 01:17 AM Gee Mikal, you didn't have to repeat them!!! But yeah, I have heard or used most of them. It's tough to remember all the things you say that sound odd to someone else. I just realized today THAT I SAY Tuesdee instead of Tuesday, thanks to Cara who also explained that the "older" folks all said it that way. Thank you Cara and may a porcupine nest in your underwear! Hi Leej, you're "dead nuts on" about Jim Varney...he's a Lexington boy; a friends wife went to school with him. ...And then there is the Whittay Castille, those fine French restaurants, but with GREAT coffee. Columbus was corporate home to them for years and when we got a National Hockey League franchise, a lot of people wanted to call them the "Sliders" which would have been cute for a lot of reasons. They're calling the team the "Blue Jackets" in honor(?) of an obscure Native American warrior. My personal choice was to stick with the Buckeye state thing and call them the "Puckeyes." This got lots of air time on the radio, but I'm sure it wasn't even on the list so it couldn't be cut to begin with. Christ, I hate hockey anyway! catspaw |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: catspaw49 Date: 09 Apr 99 - 01:32 AM Hey Bill...All True, except the part about Cleveland being part of the state. When I was living in Atlanta, damn near everybody I met from Ohio was from Cleveland! I guess they couldn't stand going into Lake Erie and coming out with Zebra mussels stuck between their toes and three lampreys attached to their ass. And of cours there is the Cuyahoga River...DON'T LIGHT A MATCH !!! Actually, I'm sure you realize I'm just kidding. What Cleveland has done in the past 10 years is truly miraculous...the Flats, the Jake, the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame.......and now the Browns are back...and without Modell, the dumbest ass in 7 states!!! Screw the Bengals...Let them 'Dawg biscuits FLY!!! Truly a beautiful city these days......but there was a time................. catspaw |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: bseed(charleskratz) Date: 09 Apr 99 - 01:55 AM Kat--a minor quibble from a one-time newsman: op-ed is originally the page opposite the editorial page, a page for opinion pieces, usually by regular local and syndicated columnists. Hence, an op-ed piece is an opinion piece. --seed |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Barbara Date: 09 Apr 99 - 01:55 AM White Castle Hamburgers were the only opportunity I've had to eat horsemeat. (they were busted for it once when I was a kid) I remember when you could buy one for a dime! And I grew up in DE-troit near Nine mile and LI-ver-noy (Livernois) but the one that always wiped out the visitors was Lahser (said Lasher). And Bill, the radio stations said DE-troit, as in " the Motown soun' of DE-troit City", but those of us who lived there said De-TROIT most of the time. Wasn't CKLW Windsor? At any rate, there was a Canadian station we all got that always ended the news with "Today is Chewsday, Feb-roo-aree third, and all trains, planes and buses are running on SHED-yul. Blessings, Barbara |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: catspaw49 Date: 09 Apr 99 - 02:36 AM Damnation!!! Here it is at 2:15AM and I should be asleep, but (I know you'll find this hard to believe), I'm damn near ready to drive 45 miles to Columbus for a sack of "greasies".........HELP!!! They now sell them in boxes of 12 at the supermarket, but it just ain't the same! Used to be that they were about the only thing open all night, so the nighttime association is strong. Oddly enough I used to live in Chattanooga, the home of Krystal, the southern White Castle. A friend in advertising went to several wine tasting parties at the Krystal headquarters...Why the hell would they have wine tastings? I mean, were they gonna' put it on the menu? "How about a nice Bordeaux with your greasy pieces of shit?" What.... Almost as bad was when White Castle started serving breakfast. I went in right after they started and ordered the full breakfast. Thank God they have good coffee. There was a small pile of extremely well cooked scrambled eggs, 2 slices of extremely well buttered toast (read: soggy), a potato cake like thing that tasted extremely UNlike potatoes, and 2 unidentifiable things about the same size and color of a small peppermint patty. Throwing all caution to the wind, I popped one of these little suckers into my mouth and hoped for the best. I didn't get it. The thing exploded into a powdery substance on which I damn near choked. But in the midst of coughing and retching while trying to get it down, four words crossed my mind...deep fried sausage patty??? Yep, that was it. I still cannot believe to this day what deep fat frying can do to sausage. And yet the road to Columbus still beckons. I'd be back just in time to get Karen up for work. Christ, she'd never understand! ...but maybe if I brought her some.......... catspaw |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: alison Date: 09 Apr 99 - 05:24 AM Hi, If I asked any of you (outside of Northern Ireland) for two pokes, a 99 and a slider... would you have any idea of what I wanted? Slainte alison |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Ritchie Date: 09 Apr 99 - 06:38 AM It's a funny thing but colloquialisms-slang call it what you will, tend to be associated with a certain class of people and we here in the UK are pretty 'class' conscious. So sadly a lot of local dialect is 'knocked out' of the little ones and they are encouraged nay forced to speak the Queens English. Thanks to various television programmes and actors the Geordie dialect is now acceptable, however we seem to have a fund of special words...my favorite is 'Clarts' this is mud..sticky claggy mud...have you ever put your wellington boot into mud and tried to pull it out ? well 'Clart' is the sound it makes. What I should do is post a few things from the 'Viz' magazine especially from the profanasaurus edition.Sid the sexist et all. Gan doon Darza with Ritchie |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: AndyG Date: 09 Apr 99 - 06:39 AM alison, poke - nope So would you buy all these things from an ice-cream van ? AndyG |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: alison Date: 09 Apr 99 - 06:49 AM Yes you would Andy,
a poke is an ordinary ice cream in a cone, I made the mistake of saying in front of some Aussies on a hot day that I'd love a poke....... got some really weird looks........ and you can't tell them that you'll have a root around in a cupboard either, (meaning have a look for something.) Ritchie, I still tell my kids they're dirty wee clarts, or dirty wee halians (not sure how that one is spelt.. but pronounce hal-yens.) and I always thought it was brassy glint, for skint... maybe it was just the Belfast pronounciation. slainte alison |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: The_one_and_only_Dai Date: 09 Apr 99 - 06:59 AM Alison - is a halian the phonetic spelling of hooligan in Gaelic? My mum called me a 'dirty arab' in the same circumstances. This was common in my part of S Wales. Oh, and 'daft apeth', whatever that means. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Steve Parkes Date: 09 Apr 99 - 07:24 AM Apeth = 'ap'orth = ha'pennyworth. (See my previous post.) You won't be old enough to remember this, Dai, but before about 1970 we still had 240 pence to the pound; one penny (1d) being two ha(lf)pence, and 1.1/2d being a penny ha'penny or three ha'pence. I tell my kids about doing long division in £sd and they don't believe me. I can still do it too! I suspect poke for ice-cream cornet comes from hokey-pokey, which I believe is still common in Scotland? It's supposed to derive from the Italian hoco uno poco - take a piece - which was the cry of the Italian ice-cream sellers; there was a lot of Italian immigration into Britain around the turn of the century, probably for historical reasons of which I am totally ignorant. So, what's boracic lint then? Presumably some kind of textile impregnated with borax, but what's it for? Steve |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: alison Date: 09 Apr 99 - 07:42 AM Hi, Just looked it up in my 'Speakin' Norn Iron as she shud be spoke.. a guide to the language spoken in the North of Ireland." book...... it spells hallion with two 'l's... it isn't from the gaelic as far as I could see in my Irish dictionary... it's just one of those words you can put a heap of feeling behind. Does anywhere else have "your head's cut" or "he's a thick as champ," (meaning not wise.)?? another I used to like was "that takes me to the fair".. roughly translated as "I find that hard to believe." I used it to an aussie and was asked "which fair?" But they're getting used to me a bit now... they understand "watch out for that shuck" (ditch), and when I'm asked what's for tea and I say "steughey" (pronounced ste-yucky) they know I've created something from whatever was lying around in the fridge. Slainte alison |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Bill in Alabama Date: 09 Apr 99 - 07:43 AM Alison-- In the mountains of East Tennessee, hyperactive, rambunctious, troublesome children were referred to as hellions; that might possibly be the origin of your term halian. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: AndyG Date: 09 Apr 99 - 07:52 AM Steve: As I remember it, Boracic Lint is that white medicated cloth that the school "nurse" used to stick over your cut knee with that terrible purple plaster strip that really hurt when it was removed. The lint also meshed with the scab and ripped open the cut again unless you soaked it off in the bath. (This still reopened the cut but didn't hurt nearly as much.)
I really wish I had no memory of this :)
alison:
Toao_Dai:
AndyG |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Bert Date: 09 Apr 99 - 09:08 AM The boracic lint that I remember was pink, and yes it was used to cover and protect minor injuries. It looks somewhat like those felt squares that you can buy in craft stores. Also, in the army, Spam was referred to as "pink lint" Bert. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Ritchie Date: 09 Apr 99 - 09:27 AM My eldest son has just come in and said he'd just heard someone use the phrase " Like a dog at broth " he loved it but was n't sure what it meant. We've used that phrase for years. I'll have to give wee Archie our westie some broth to show him. Just wait till the young un comes in and asks what a knee trembler is ..... Steve, a while ago I was in a pub in Islington ( I think it was the Kings Head ) where the landlord still had the prices in 'old money' except they were the current bar prices not pre-decimal so a pint of Guiness was £2.4s.8d . The effect was that you could n't check your change & you were amazed at how much prices had gone up. When we go to any fish & chip shop in Gateshead ,where I live ,I insist on asking for a paper when I want fish & chips.I know in other area's they ask for different things we also ask for chips with some batter. Ritchie. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: The_one_and_only_Dai Date: 09 Apr 99 - 09:28 AM Steve - in the BC, don't they say: a) It's black over Bill's mother's b) Well, I go to the foot of our stairs under various circumstances? Explain please, if you can. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: Steve Parkes Date: 09 Apr 99 - 10:17 AM My first pint cost me 1/10.1/2d - that's supposed to be "one and tenpence ha'penny". The thing is, when £sd went out, it stopped having inflation: £1 in 1972(?) would be, maybe, £5-£10 today (or even more, God help us!). So paying half-a-crown (2/6d - 12.1/2p) for a pint could be the equivalent of, er ... £2.44 today. That still sounds expensive to me! "It's dark over Bill's mother's", as I know it: I don't know who Bill was, but if I was his mum, I'd move somewhere where the weather was better! "Well, I'll goo [sic] t'aer 'ouse/to the foot of aer stairs/t Cannock Chaerse [Chase]/etc.": I've heard Ken Dodd use it, so it's not just Black Country. No idea where it comes from ...
"Dirty/mucky/noisy Arab" (short "A") are still common round my way. I wonder what they did to qualify for that? How about animal metaphors: mucky pup, daft bat, dirty cat/dog, donkey's years (on 'is yead!). Maybe we could invent some new ones!
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: AlistairUK Date: 09 Apr 99 - 10:36 AM Ritchie: when I used to go to the chippie, I would also ask for scrumps. When I first started teaching english out here, I didn't have the refined and cultured accent wot I have now. One evening after one particular lesson a student came up to me and said "Teacher, why are so many people dying when you speak?" "Dying?" Replies yours truly, "No body died tonight." "Yes they did, there was Mondie, tuesdie and also yesterdie." I knew I had problems also with my squashed vowel sounds in words like "Town"..which came out "tewn" and "Brown"which came out "Brewn" so I had a lot of fixing on my accent before I felt confident again. |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: catspaw49 Date: 09 Apr 99 - 10:57 AM Just wanted to say that I survived the night without a trip to White Castle. I especially want to thank Barbara for bringing them up, so to speak, and katlaughing for starting this miserable thread. Actually, I love you both, but a "slider" at 3 AM would have made today an endless blur of Maalox, Pepto-Bismol, baking soda, and Gaviscon. catspaw |
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Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun! From: AlistairUK Date: 09 Apr 99 - 11:17 AM I have read an awful lot recently about White Castle burgers and I am actually willing to sacrifice a day on the loo just to taste these strange and exotic beasts. The burgers are steamed aren't they? And only cost 59 cents from what I can gather. If you want a real arse burner, next time any of you go to the UK after a night in the pub find the nearest kebab van and get a kebab with extra chili sauce, guarenteed to clear the tubes for at least three days. Uh-Oh I feel thread creep coming on...this is turning into a food thread again. Back to colloquialisms, I was talking to a mate of mine last night, who comes from round Barnsley way, and he was talking about a game they played when he was a kid called Tig, it took me a few moments to realise that he was talking about the game I know as Tag. |
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