Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Metchosin
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 01:28 AM

LMAO at that one rangeroger!

"prarie brain damage" - an aphasia that comes about from living in wide open spaces for too long, usually demonstrated by the clearcutting of all the trees on a building lot or property, when retiring or relocating to the coast.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 01:53 AM

LOL, Metchosin! That must be what I am suffering from, all these prairie brain damaged Wyomingites! Today I found myself longing so for a good rainstorm; I wanted it so much I could smell it, feel it, see the lightening, and hear the thunder, but alas, no such luck. I do love the wide open, but right now I am ready for some forest and moisture!

kat

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Metchosin
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 02:09 AM

I wouldn't mind a few days where you are kat, the trees and hills can truly make you feel claustrophobic and unending days of rain can make you overly introspective. Luckily, its been a pretty bright warm spring here, so far this year, but I always feel that a great weight has been lifted from me when I get up to the Interior or into the Rockies.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST,John Gray / Australia
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 11:37 AM

Just a couple. As flat as a shit-carter's hat - depressed. Rock Choppers - roman catholics.And from my navy days; Piss Strainers - braised kidneys, Train Smash - tomato au gratin. Up Top - above Australia, mainly Asia. And when asked what our job was we said "we traveled in steel for the gov't". Goffas - coke / sprite etc. Some nicknames ( maybe a thread on their own ) Opium - slow working dope. Jungles - wet & dense. And yes, down here a "root" is sexual intercourse.

Regards / JG / FME.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 11:44 AM

[Reminded by reports of a recent unscheduled stop on an island (?Azores?) with only 14 hotel beds of a plane with 200 passengers including senior lawyers en route from London to Trinidad:]BWIA (British West Indan Airlines) .When we traveled BWIA to St Lucia the locals told us it stood for: But Will It Arrive?
RtS

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: sophocleese
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 11:57 AM

SFAs (sweet f**k alls) the bits they sell in Donut stores that are supposedly the centers of donuts, sold as Timbits or Robin's Eggs, whatever.

Rug rat, porch monkey, ankle biter all names for toddlers.

Mockage - mockery.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST,JULIE
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 12:03 PM

Fascinating - especially as I was brought up in one culture ( Scotland) and have lived for years in another (Yorkshire). I consider myself colloquially bi-lingal. I am fascinated by the use of poke for a ice cream in Belfast in Scotland a poke is a bag - as in a poke of chips and fish and chips would be a fish supper.

Does any one have any that they can't stand. I hate poorly - meaning ill and banned it from home conversation. My Dad couldn't get used to the way his male friend addressed him as love when we moved to Yorkshire and my mother couldn't get used to the "are you alright" as the opening greeting.

Julie

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Scabby Douglas
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 12:14 PM

How about this one from Glasgow:

Ah could eat a scabby-heidit wean.

Meaning: I am so hungry I could eat a child with suspicious-looking scalp lesions..

Sometimes not scabby-heidit wean, but just a scabby dug.

A one-armed bandit (slot machine) is known as a "puggy"

Glasgow has tons...

Chanty...

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Caitrin
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 12:18 PM

Living in NC, we have more expressions for the middle of nowhere than just about anything else. The middle of nowhere can be described as: J'bip (I don't know how you really spell it.)
the sticks
the boonies
and, less politely, BFN. (butt f**k nowhere)
Also, any cookout can be referred to as a barbeque, whether barbeque is actually being served or not. A pig pickin', however, always has a pig. I've been told (by a friend who used to live there) that there's a Saudi Arabian equivalent called a "goat grab."

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 12:58 PM

A word I have always liked, but seems to be fading from usage, is "yonder." The old folks in my Mom's family, who hailed from South Central Kentucky, used yonder all the time. It describes a specific visible point ("do you see that magnolia tree yonder?"or "do you see yonder Magnolia tree?"), or a general area ("the best fishing is yonder behind those hills"). I can recall my Grampaw using the short version, as in "the cat is over in yon Magnolia tree." I always thought it had a poetic feel to it.

A mildly perjorative term used in my family for Catholics was "Cross-backs."

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 02:35 PM

My dad, to this day, calls the Pope, the "Holy Pappy in Rome"

Yonder is a loving word, LeeJ, some old songs make good use of it.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Hotspur
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 02:51 PM

Arouond here, we may say "the sticks" or "the boonies" for very rural areas, but it's more common to hear "East Elbow" or "East Podunk", as in "she lives way out in East Podunk."

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 03:14 PM

[Boofoo] = [Butt-F**k] = [Super-Boonies] = [west of where God lost his underwear]

[skimpy glimmers] = a term mudcat friends have used to try discussing a spiritual event perceived with human understanding

[Lombosis] = an imaginary (??) disease which is always terminal but never fatal, signified by the onset of Nod Disease, falling asleep in work clothes in the chair at home.

[Portagee] = trying to talk when too tired to form language properly in the brain but something sounding almost like a real language comes out the mouth

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 04:30 PM

There is another branch to this thread! Click here!

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: wildwoodflower
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 09:01 PM

I believe the word "Wallah" mentioned by many as being an Indian (Hindi) phrase may be one and the same with the Arabic phrase, "Wallah" or "Wallahi", which means literally, "By God", used as we would say "I swear" or used when replying in astonishment, such as "Really?"

My daddy was from (the "boonies", the sticks") Gibson Co., TN (I say that with a smile). and he had some funny expressions. Here's a few he used and we used growing up (we grew up in Hermitage, a suburb of Nashville, i.e. the "boonies" of Nashville"):

Coke, or "Co-co-la" -ANY softdrink, not just Coca-Cola or Coca-Cola products, Pepsi too.

"Bri-ches"- my daddy never wore pants, trousers or slacks, just "bri-ches", the ones with his suit were just fancy "bri-ches".

Dad always liked to have a "swig" of coffee or iced tea.

"Sweet-tea" may as well be one word.

"What in Sam's Hill!" -i.e., What the Hell. I always though Sam's Hill was an actual place. It must be "over yonder" -an unspecified distance.

"Doomafloggy", "Dohicky", "Thingamabob"- unknown object. -does anyone else use "doomafloggy"? I don't think I've ever heard anyone else use it.

We also use the expression "carry", such as "Carry me to the Kroger's or Krystal's", notice the "'s" on the end of Kroger and Krystal ("the" before Kroger's and Krystal's is optional). Don't know why.

Nothing is pronounced they way it probably should be around here. "Shell-bee-ville (Shellybyville)" is "She-ba-vul", "Lu-wee-ville" is in fact (ha!) "Lua-vul", "Leb-anon" is "Lebnun" and what should seem to be "O-bee-on" County is "Obi(short "i")n". Memphis is "Mem-fus". My mother, whose parents grew up in the midwest, pronouces Missouri "Missoura". One of my professors called Raleigh, Memphis, "East Jesus"- he was from the north.

"Do whut?" is a popular expression.

"perty" -pretty

"How come" and "Why come" replace "how can it be" and "why is it".

When we were children, if we didn't drink our milk we were told we'd, "dry up and blow away".

"tee-niny" -really small.

"slowpoke"- no doubt from my midwestern maternal grandfather who homesteaded out in California.

"You better pack a lunch 'cause it's gonna take all day!"-my dad said this in reply to an obnoxious drunk in a truckstop who tried to provoke him to fight. A classic!

"I'm gonna be on you like a duck on a june bug!" -Major Beale, 2nd Mar Div, Camp Lejeune, NC., USMC.

"Copycat" -someone who mocks someone else, someone who "copied" someone else -silly!

"Goofball"- silly person.

"Cornball"- dry humor. I'm sure I'll think of more.

Next, someone should start a thread on CB radio expressions.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Mbo
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 09:21 PM

Cool wildwood! I am just 10 minutes away from Camp Lejuene as we speak! That's "Luh-zhoon", or in the original French "Luh-zhun", but around here folks say "Luh-joon", "luh-zhern".

--Mbo

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST
Date: 12 Nov 06 - 03:24 PM

'Em!............Fun!

Thanks for the PM, Bernard. I had already deleted it, and those that followed. Folks, this references a spam post that had already been dealt with. I have removed the following posts that referenced it. Mudelf

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 12 Nov 06 - 03:37 PM

It should have been all deleted Mudelf!!!!!!!
Scooby

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 12 Nov 06 - 08:35 PM

Lonesome EJ, (more than six years ago!!!) said:

yonder. It describes a specific visible point ("do you see that magnolia tree yonder?"or "do you see yonder Magnolia tree?"), or a general area ("the best fishing is yonder behind those hills").

On the other hand, "over yonder" can mean the after-life, Heaven.

Dave Oesterreich

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST,E.B. White
Date: 12 Nov 06 - 10:42 PM

Some folks, when they mean to indicate positive regard, "punctuate" their prose with stuff like **smile** and **grin**.

Wish they'd quit it, but I realise they're attached to it.

It's just cheesy is all.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 12 Nov 06 - 11:16 PM

In Texas, anyone from another state or a far-flung place was probably from "Bumfuck Egypt."

Winters were/are "colder than a well-digger's belt buckle," or maybe "cold as a witch's tit," or possibly referred to a brass monkey's anatomy in various ways.

"Over yonder" was simply "a ways over there." Could also be "see yonder cow in that field?"

"Down the road a ways" meant a little farther on.

Might be "on you like a duck on a Junebug," or "like stink on sh*t."

And "Y'all come back, y'hear?" really does get used a lot there. More than one person is nearly always "y'all."

One I always liked was "If they stuffed your brain up a monkey's butt, it would still rattle like a BB in a freight car." (Usually yelled at my next oldest brother... as long as my mom wasn't around.)

In Washington state, place names lie in wait for the unwary all over. There are many Native American names for towns, such as Puyallup (PEW-allup, not POOEY-allup) or Sequim (took me years to figure out it was pronounced "Skwim," not SEE-quim).

Whoever refreshed this thread, thanks! And thanks to Katlaughing for starting it. It's been a fun one to read. And BTW, Missouri is not Missoura, it's Miz-ZUR-a!

Lin in Kansas

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Nov 06 - 12:50 AM

Thanks, Linn. I think the refresh may have been part of a spam attack, bt it's still fun to see it back up.BTW, I'd always heard it "colder than a well-digger's ass."

I find myself using one of my dad's, these days, "double tough" meaning excatly what it says. It was high praise coming from him, usually in reference to an ancestor.

Guest, E.B. White...using *smile* or even **bg** is a good way of furthering communication in the cyberworld where one cannot see the facial expressions of those they *visit* with, imo. I don't think we are so attached as just wanting to be clear as to the intent of our words. Just my opinion, of course.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: John O'L
Date: 13 Nov 06 - 01:16 AM

The only time I've heard it was in a Tom Waits song as "colder than a well-digger's ass". I thought he made it up. It's kinda disappointing but pleasing at the same time to find it's a folk saying.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 13 Nov 06 - 01:57 AM

Having read this entire thread in one sitting, having made copious notes on the expressions that came to mind, and then having seen all my offerings demolished by subsequent posts, I'm left with little to say.

In my own inimitable style of brevity and terse wit, this probably won't take more than a couple of pages...

An almost ancient expression that I heard used in my youngest rememberable days was "musta seen the elephant."

The derivation is quite well known. Mammoth fossils had been found in the Kansas Territory shortly before the opening of the Territory for settlement, and the imaginings of many settlers enroute invented all kinds of "great beasts," possibly still roaming about, and threats that "the elephant 'll get you" probably kept lots of youngsters on their best behaviour. "He saw the elephant" became the somewhat cryptic description for one who didn't make it as a homesteader - i.e. who gave up and went "back East."

The very few instances in which a couple of elders used the term were cases where someone "packed up and left," nearly always under some recognized "trial" (of circumstance or reputation).

"Like a duck on a junebug" has been mentioned, but it's perhaps worth noting that the term can refer to any "surprisingly eager" act, or as in the case of the DI, as a threat.

"Been beat with an ugly stick" usually applied to females, but I've heard it used in applications to males. The meaning probably is obvious enough. "Took a second dose of ugly" is a variation(?) "Fell out of an ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down" is another, sometimes as "hit every branch when she fell out of the ugly tree."

"Choke the duck" means go take a piss. "Duck" is an obvious corruption of "duct" as I've heard it used by many, more obviously in the variant "Drain my duck."

"Subtle as cow pissin' on a flat rock" needs no explanation.

A "Hen Party" was, a generation or two ago, a womens' meeting, most often a quilting bee or ladies society (i.e. organized) meeting. The term probably still pops up, but isn't as common. The term "Biddie Bitch" was also very rarely used - only during periods when there were "nasty rumors" in circulation. The less kind version usually reflected an opinion that an opportunity to gossip about a particular rumor was the real subject of the meeting, and was "pretty strong speaking" for those I heard use it.

I can assert that on the banks of the Charles River (Cambridge MA) in the late 50s and early 60s, necking on the riverbank was called "taking her to watch the submarine races."

I can also confirm that Worcester MA was called "Wooster" by native New Englanders in the same era; but Dorcester MA was NOT called "Dooster." I lived for a little over a year in Dorcester, on a street spelled on the street sign at one end of the block "Rosseter" and pronounced "ROSS-i-ter" by all those living on the West side of the street. The sign at the other end of the block spelled it "Rosetter" and all those on the East side of the street pronounced it "Rose-ET-er." I never inquired about the difference of opinion, but failure to use the pronunciation appropriate to the street side one was on seemed to spark deeply smoldering emotions.

A short distance up the road was a "traffic circle" (roundabout?) named for a famous Revolutionary hero. Five streets entered the circle, each with a sign spelling the name of the hero differently, two signs within the circle spelled it two additional ways, and the monument in the middle was marked with a bronze plate providing an eighth spelling (Kosciuszko Circle, Dorchester MA - I picked a spelling at random.)

Some of the info on "odd pronunciations" of place names probably seem a little less "potent" to me after my "Dorchester period."

Trade jargon, US: "Where's the dutchmans?" means someone is looking for a pair of "compound-lever, toothed-jawed sheetmetal shears." So named because most of them in WWII aircraft production days at least were made by "Deutsch & Co."

Trade jargon again: "What did you do with the dyke's" meant the "diagonal cutter pliers" (wire cutters) had been misplaced.

"Carrying a loose load" probably came from the same place as "Three bricks shy of a load" or "A few marbles short of a bagful" or any number of other descriptions of "incomplete (or unused) mental capacity." There are a lot of these but calling them up without specific contexts to jog my failing memory is beyond me at the moment. Maybe "a few straws fell out of my bale."

The difference between "kluge" or "kludge" (UK: rhymes with "fudge" - usually derogatory) and "cluge" or "cludge" (US: rhymes with "huge" - frequently a back-handed compliment) could be discussed, but it's in the Hackers' Dictionary.

John

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: katlaughing
Date: 13 Nov 06 - 02:29 AM

LOL, JohninKS, my mom went to "hen parties" though it was my dad who called them such! And, Massachusetts was still that way, in the 80's and 90's, about pronouncing things oddly differently.:-)

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 13 Nov 06 - 09:09 AM

"failure to use the pronunciation appropriate to the street side one was on seemed to spark deeply smoldering emotions."

This is really funny - and reassures us, if that's the right way of putting it, that people are the same the world over.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 13 Nov 06 - 12:57 PM

I'm not really sure whether these are "colloquialisms", as specified by Kat, but they are speech peculiarities, and might be interesting.

Here in Indiana we have a number of place names that are familiar, but "different".

Milan, a town in southern Indiana, is not pronounced like its Italian forebear. It's "MY-luhn".    Milan, Michigan has this same distinction.

Lafayette is SOMETIMES pronounced like the famous Marquis, but it's not too unusual to hear it pronounced "Lay-fee-ette". Or even "La-FAY-ette".

Orleans, in Orleans County, Indiana, is not pronounced like the second word in "New OR-luhns". It's definitely, and always, "Or-LEENS".

Terre Haute, Indiana (meaning "high ground"), ought to and many times is pronounced "TAIR-uh Hote", but it often loses the second syllable of "Terre" to become "Tair Hote". And worse, "Tair Hut". Or, for conscious humor, "Terrible Hut".

Then (not a pronunciation matter, but of interest), there's a "Needmore, Indiana". In fact there's another one of that name in the state. No, there are actually two more, for a total of three Needmores in Indiana. I guess someone thought we needed more or them.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST
Date: 13 Nov 06 - 01:27 PM

Someone who is quite mean when it comes to spending their money is referred to as being, "As tight as a fishes arse" in my neck of the woods. (Newcastle) Similarly, "He could peel an orange in his pocket."
       Someone lacking refinement or manners can also be labelled as being, "As rough as a badger's arse."

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Nov 06 - 11:24 AM

With reference to unruly children; What ee needs is a slammin good lugwinder. Or to the parents of said children; you mus cobble up yer hounds. Old Nova Scotia, grand but not heard much anymore.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Bernard
Date: 14 Nov 06 - 06:18 PM

He's that mean he wouldn't give a door a slam...

Bugger the expense - throw the cat another canary!

He's a good lad, but his boots are tight...

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST,thurg
Date: 14 Nov 06 - 06:32 PM

"He's a fine lad, but he'd be none the worse for a hanging."

Someone in the family used to say this - but I have this uncomfortable notion that it might have come from Dickens somewhere. Anyone?

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Bugsy
Date: 14 Nov 06 - 08:31 PM

My neice has been asking me about "Bloody Nora" or "Flippin'Nora" or "Flamin' Nora" or even "F*$#ing Nora".

Does anyone know the origins, or who "Nora" was??


Cheers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 15 Nov 06 - 09:22 AM

A couple of my favourites:


"She's got the kind of personality that makes everyone she meets want to shake her warmly by the throat"

"There's nowt wrong wi' 'im as couldn't be cured by slittin' 'is throat"

Don T.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 19 Nov 06 - 05:48 AM

"es anyone know the origins, or who "Nora" was??"

Nora Titoff, that Russian Lady Writer, I suspect...

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST,Scoville at Dad's
Date: 19 Nov 06 - 03:06 PM

In Texas it's New OR-leans, usually run together so it sounds like one word (nuORlins). And it's not a PEE-can (can, as in the tin thing in which you buy beans), but a pe-CAHN, that we put in pies.

I had a college classmate from Milwaukee who asked where the "bubbler" (drinking fountain) was. I had never heard this, but my New Jerseyite mother said she had, although she and her friends didn't use it regularly as children.

We've also got "icehouses", which are like semi-outdoor bars (some are more like convenience stores that sell a lot of alcohol)--they often have garage doors in the walls. I believe it's derived from the practice of storing and selling alcohol from literal icehouses back when we had them (although I don't know where you'd have a real icehouse this far south since you'd never have any ice to store in it).

Rebel-Yankee Language Test. Ha ha! I scored 81% Southern, which surprises me since I learned to talk from my decidedly Yankee parents, even though I've lived on the Gulf Coast for the best part of my life.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Bugsy
Date: 21 Nov 06 - 02:42 AM

So? No one don't know nuffin' 'baht Nora????


CHeers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Nov 06 - 08:10 AM

I said - "Nora Titoff"

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 21 Nov 06 - 08:16 AM

QUOTE
like state a booktitle and have the other one guess the name of the author...
"Yellow river" by a male Irish author ? I P Daily...or,
"Baby's revenge" by a female russian author ? Nora Titoff :-)...

UNQUOTE

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST,Ancient Briton
Date: 21 Nov 06 - 01:20 PM

Fools round here are sometimes said to have the brain of a chocolate pig. The sound of a cheap banjo was once described as being like a rat in a biscuit tin. Newcomers feigining affluence are described as tuppenny millionaires. Brown and white horses are described a coloured osses. Americans (even those from the deepest south) are referred to as Yanks. Narrow pathways between buildings are called ginnels (but to the east of the district sometimes snickets). Peat bogs are called hags. Lady sheep are called yows and young cattle coves. Baby horses are foiles and adult cattle are beasts (pronounced bee-yasts). Boots are booits. You are called thee and when you're instructed to do something, the address is thou mun (verb)... (pronounced tha'mn...)

No prizes for guessing where.

AB

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Bugsy
Date: 29 Nov 06 - 07:52 PM

Thanks a bunch Foolstroupe.

So? No one ELSE don't know nuffin' 'baht Nora????


CHeers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: OtherDave
Date: 30 Nov 06 - 06:06 PM

It's a manufactured colloquialism, but I won't let that stop me... a remembered bit of Marshall Dodge, New England humorist, speaking in a solid-maple Maine drawl, a farmer talking about the newly arrived child of neighbors...

"I could take a sharp knife and a piece of knotty pine, and whittle a better-looking baby than those two made..."

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 30 Nov 06 - 08:13 PM

From: GUEST,JULIE - PM
Date: 14 Apr 00 - 12:03 PM

'...we moved to Yorkshire and my mother couldn't get used to the "are you alright" as the opening greeting.'

Oh! That explains it! (Maybe...) I have a coworker who's from Manchester, whose father is from Durham: she often greets me with "you alright?" and I've always wondered if I looked like I wasn't!

~ Becky in Tucson, Arizona

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Gurney
Date: 01 Dec 06 - 01:42 AM

Sydneysiders have their own rhyming slang, different from(or to) the London version. Two I remember : Septic. = American. (Septic tank) Horses. = Homosexuals. (Horses hoofs, poofs.)

If a Kiwi says "You can put a ring around that!" it means s/he agrees wholeheartedly.

The matelots of both RN and RNZN refer to their respective airforces as 'Crabs,' due to the colour of their uniform being similar to an ointment used for venereal infestations. "I'm flying home on Crab Airways."

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: Bugsy
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 06:04 PM

No one?

Nuffin?

'Baht Nora?



Cheers


Bugsy

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: moongoddess
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 06:44 PM

Well now, I live in RI where the colloquillisms run rampant. Thank you MMario and Barbara for reminding me of the reference to making out as "watching the submarine races". In North Kingstown, RI, where I grew up, we REALLY DID watch the submarine races when we made out. We went to the beach and looked at the bay where real submarines were lurking about, thanks to the US Navy.
We call people in RI who live in "the sticks" Swamp Yankees", meaning their heritage goes way back to the first settlers. They don't need and they don't subscribe to modern ways of living. Then there are the Italian immigrants and their descendants on Federal Hill. If someone disappears on "the Hill" you just say, "and there he was, gone!". If he was gone in a very suspicious way, maybe he was wearing "a cement overcoat" and took a swim in Narragansett Bay.
I love Rhode Island!
Diana

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 06 Jul 07 - 02:47 PM

I grew up in California's San Joaquin Valley, where many of the residents had moved from Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas, among other places, back in the 1930's and '40's. Some of what they contributed to the language -

Speaking of bad behavior:
"That's lower'n a snake's belly in a wagon track."

Ugly woman:
"I wouldn't take her to dog fight if I knew she could win!"

Bullshit:
"Horse pucky!" "Road apples!"

Fast:
"Quicker'n goose shit through a tin horn!" (which made it all the way into a line from "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas," a famous Broadway musical.

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST,merrius
Date: 03 Nov 09 - 11:16 AM

Related to SNAFU, there's:

TARFU---things are REALLY fucked up

and

FUBAR---fucked up beyond all recognition

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: oldhippie
Date: 03 Nov 09 - 07:57 PM

I have a tie clip from the 70s that reads "YCDBSOYA" which stands for "You Can't Do Business Sitting On Your Ass"

One of my favorites is "emuff" (pronounced eee-muff) - short for english muffin; "I'll have eggs scrambled, bacon and an emuff with butter and jam."

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: GUEST,Mr Red
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 06:17 AM

Our Black Country family used to used the word

tranklements,
noun usually used in the plural. these are the ephemera that burden you, cannot throw out, but are by and large without useful function. eg jewelery.

The ceilidhnauts of England refer to their genre as
E-Ceilidh, specifically English Ceilidh.
Dances can be from anywhere but are most likely to be from England &/or written here. Because we are English. Ranting and Hornpipe steps are common, unlike (say) Scottish dancing where Hornpipes don't exist and Ranting means telling the E-Cailidh dancers that stray into Scottish Dances that they should stand still until they are required to move instead of bopping all the time! And improvisation is not a feature of Scottish Dancing (or English Country dancing much neither).

Ducks and runs for cover.................

Subject: RE: Colloquialisms- Post & Define 'Em! Fun!
From: kendall
Date: 04 Nov 09 - 07:13 AM

Man to friend whose wife just had a 3 pound baby, "Hell, man, you just about got your bait back".

To indicate far away, Way the hell and gone...

Rough wea5ther...Savagrus.