BS: Olde Sayings

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Jun 22 - 04:42 AM

He couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo (oft heard when a footballer misses an open goal from two yards)

Put wood in th' 'ole (shut that door)

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 06 Jun 22 - 04:07 AM

In Wedgebury (Wednesbury to those outside the Black Country)

"Up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire"

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Senoufou
Date: 06 Jun 22 - 03:06 AM

When my sister and I were small, in the evening our father used to say firmly "Up the wooden road to Bedford!" (time for bed)

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 05 Jun 22 - 07:41 AM

Seen on a wall in Wellington NZ

"When the atom drum bops, wheel all beef hooked"

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 04 Jun 22 - 07:10 PM

Safe as walking into a church.
obsolete in US

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Raggytash
Date: 02 Jun 22 - 09:01 AM

I'd forgotten about that one Steve *grin* !!

Many years ago one of our group brought his Australian girfriend into out company, grand lass she was too. We decide we would teach her to speak "proper lanky" speech so we derived a saying for her to learn. It HAS to be said in broad Lanky mind.

"there's nowt wrong with owt, whats gradely o'er stump as long as there's tripe in picklin'"




* for our American cousins it loosely translates as "as is well with the world"

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 02 Jun 22 - 07:18 AM

"She's no better than she ought to be" always mystifies me. Herself for some reason links that to "a house of ill repute but good reputation".

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Jun 22 - 06:16 AM

Well bugger me sideways with a burnt chip (thanks to Raggytash for that one)

Or,

Well bugger me sideways with a bent fish-hook (thanks to Stephen Fry for that one)

Or,

Whale oil beef hooked...

(They all mean the same thing!)

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 02 Jun 22 - 05:37 AM

not got two ha'pneys to rub together (half penny for our US cousins)

or as I say after 4 hours walking on rough ground

"At last I have two ape knees to rub together"

thinks - should I add the one about having a joint account?

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Rapparee
Date: 01 Jun 22 - 09:41 PM

All right, get up there! You sons of bitches wanna live forever?

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 31 May 22 - 06:00 PM

Don't come crying to me...

If you break your leg - don't come running to me

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 29 May 22 - 10:30 AM

.... can't .... resist ....

Joe_F's contribution reminds me of something from one of the older Red dwarf episodes: "like trying to find a fart in a jacuzzi". Related?

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 May 22 - 07:48 AM

The senior gardener on the Coronation Park estate in Radcliffe would get off his seat at the end of the tea break and say to us, "Right, come on lads, be men..."

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 28 May 22 - 11:00 PM

Who in their right mind would?

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Rapparee
Date: 28 May 22 - 10:57 PM

Just get back in the saddle and pull leather. Cowboy up!

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 May 22 - 06:03 PM

Don't come crying to me...

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Joe_F
Date: 28 May 22 - 05:56 PM

Sometimes such sayings develop successors. The following example was told me by Maurice Samuel of blessed memory.

There used to be a Yiddish expression for drifting around helplessly: "vi a frantsoiz in Rusland" (like a Frenchman in Russia, referring to Napoleon's retreat). This was parodied as "vi a farts im roisl" (like a fart in the pickle barrel, referring to fermentation bubbles working their way up between the pickles. By the time my father learned it (in English), it had lost its historical roots and become simply "like a fart in the marketplace".

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Rapparee
Date: 27 May 22 - 09:51 PM

You drive like old people (fill in the blank yourself).

If you were any slower you'd be dead.

His worth is about like a fart in a windstorm.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 May 22 - 08:54 AM

He couldn't find his arse wi' both hands.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 27 May 22 - 07:39 AM

'e needs pulling through with a christmas tree

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 26 May 22 - 02:52 AM

My mother used to use alternative words for my (long) trousers. Variously trous, slacks and even pantaloons. Sometimes pants but she did live in Pennsylvania for about 5 years as a young girl.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 26 May 22 - 02:46 AM

women's panties Ah! Methinks a transliteration.
I would posit - panties imply under garments cf pants external garb - mostly. UK English anyway.
And probably NZ English too, though they use the Scottish English often like uptake where I would say pick up - as in tourists' leaflets.

It's a Tower of Babble out there

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Savings
From: Donuel
Date: 25 May 22 - 08:31 PM

Olde Savings are the best Savings.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 May 22 - 04:25 PM

Lord God Almighty
Weed on his nightie.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 May 22 - 04:14 PM

Here's an olde saying:

"Bloody Hell."

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Mrrzy
Date: 25 May 22 - 12:45 PM

There's a German on the grass
With a bullet up his ass
Pull it out
Pull it out
Boy scout

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 25 May 22 - 11:00 AM

My Mum used to have a lot of sayings

Oh What fun! Oh what Fun!
Shooting peas up a nanny goats bum

sign out side Fish Shop in St Helens
If it swims Alf's got it!

Mrs Maguire peed on the fire
the Fire was too hot
She peed on the pot
The pot was too round
She peed on the ground
The ground was too flat
She peed on the cat
And the cat ran away with the pee on its back

and other stuff

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 24 May 22 - 10:55 AM

Woe is me, for I have been Wiki'd. The *second* DDG hit carefully explains that no such expression has been found in the entirety of the Latin mass, and traces the basic construction to a reference, in a work of literary satire, to a book which never existed. (I would have gone further, but my browser doesn't like the taste of said site's cookies.)

Moral: beware folk etymology.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 24 May 22 - 10:17 AM

Gotcha: the first hit on DDG is to Wictionary, where "Ah! mihi, bea’te Martine", which translates to "Ah! Grant to me, blessed Martin" (meaning Saint Martin), is alleged to have been the punchline of a nautical joke. Methinks the punctuation may be significant unto Google Translate.

Note to self: put brain in gear before engaging mouth.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Monique
Date: 24 May 22 - 08:36 AM

"There's enough blue to make a Dutch boy a pair of trousers". Here it's "une culotte de gendarme" which shows the expression must be more than 150 years old because "culotte" switched from "men's trousers" to "women's panties" in the mid 1800's.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 May 22 - 07:23 AM

"Eeee, bloody Nora, I feel as I've bin shagged by a rhino..."

OK, not olde, but I don't half use it a lot after a long day...

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 24 May 22 - 06:56 AM

'There's enough blue to make a Dutch boy a pair of trousers'.

With us it was a Sailor - which makes more sense to me. As if sky and trousers make sense!

Monique - merci beaucou for calling a cat a cat!

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Monique
Date: 24 May 22 - 06:38 AM

French-speaking girls, it's "Tu me sors par les yeux".
Mr Red, we do say "Le chat t'a mangé la langue" to say "the cat got your tongue" and "donner sa langue au chat" is when we give up guessing. We don't "throw in the towel", we "throw the sponge".

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 May 22 - 06:12 AM

It was enough blue to make a Dutchman's britches our end!

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: G-Force
Date: 24 May 22 - 05:37 AM

My mother had some unforgettable sayings. After some minor catrastrophe like something getting broken or a drink getting knocked over, she would say 'Worse things happen in China'.

And on an overcast day, when the clouds started to clear away it would be 'There's enough blue to make a Dutch boy a pair of trousers'.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 24 May 22 - 03:39 AM

Goggle can only manage "Alma mihi et Beate Martine" > Alma me and Blessed Martin

And cannot translate "Alma Mater" nourishing mother (go figure)

Shipshape and Bristol fashion. originally meant upright, as in the angle of repose of the mud in the Bristol Avon. The bottoms of the boats were at that angle so that as the tide receded the ships settled in the mud upright. Or so I read long ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: The Sandman
Date: 23 May 22 - 10:46 AM

Why is it called Going for a Burton?
It was widely used as a slang term by the RAF in World War Two when the RAF took heavy casualties during the war to defeat Nazi Germany. Back then it was considered bad luck to say that someone had died or was missing in action, so the phrase 'gone for a Burton' was used instead

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: G-Force
Date: 23 May 22 - 10:34 AM

I think it was something like: 'alma mihi et Beate Martine'.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 May 22 - 06:52 AM

Shipshape and Bristol fashion.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 23 May 22 - 03:05 AM

iron cannon balls on a dimpled brass plate on the deck of a war-ship.

Yea, but only for ceremonial purposes, and when moored in harbour. Never when floating free.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: MaJoC the Filk
Date: 22 May 22 - 12:10 PM

A vague memory suggests "It was all My eye and Betty Martin" may have been a nautical mondegreen: a sailor venturing ashore in a Catholic country, happening on a Mass being celebrated, and being asked back on the ship what it was like. Determining quite what from the Latin mass was misheard as "my eye and betty martin" is left as an exercise for the student, but I remember thinking "that makes sense" when I saw it.

.... When Herself goes to Mass next, I'll ask her to ask the priest. Research continues.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 May 22 - 09:16 AM

Eeee, f*****g stroll on...

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 May 22 - 06:44 AM

'Thas a rummun'

This phrase is used to describe situations which are a little out of the ordinary or odd.

• 'What a load of ole squit'

When someone thinks you're talking utter rubbish in East Anglia they'll probably let you know by saying this classic phrase.

• 'Hold yew hard'

If you wanted someone to hang on for a moment, this is what you'
East Anglian sayings

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: The Sandman
Date: 22 May 22 - 06:37 AM

The expression: "It is cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey" comes from the practice of putting iron cannon balls on a dimpled brass plate on the deck of a war-ship. When very cold the brass contracted sufficiently to cause the iron balls to fall out.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 22 May 22 - 04:31 AM

Mes pieds me tuent - Goggle can't find moi in context and fails on the same word in Portuguese & Castillian. In Catalan it looks like the feet are dangerous weapons, but in German, maybe, it translates well, though idiomatic language doesn't carry well and on Goggle even worse.

eg Calling a spade a spade in French becomes a calling a cat a cat - I wonder how cat got your tongue is received in French? I think it sounds like you give your cat a tongue - Oh! What fun!.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Joe_F
Date: 21 May 22 - 05:26 PM

My mother's immigrant friends thought that the most bizarre American expressions were "My feet are killing me" and "I feel like a cocktail". Try those out in *any* other language.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 May 22 - 04:17 PM

"It's all my eye and Betty Martin" - an ancient expression that means "don't give me your bullshit..."

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Mr Red
Date: 19 May 22 - 06:05 PM

As I heard it, Brass Monkeys were ceremonial/ neat & tidy land fashions.

Just imagine a pyramid of balls on a rolling ship! In the fog of war! They had suitably troughed shelves for holding cannon balls on board.

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Senoufou
Date: 19 May 22 - 02:10 AM

Ha Mrrzy, that's a new one! Mon époux me sort des yeux!
I think I may have asked this on Mudcat before, but can anybody shed some light on something my Irish mother (from Cork) used to say?
Example: "You've been playing out in the mud, 'allowan'." Now what does 'allowan' mean, and what is its origin?

Subject: RE: BS: Olde Sayings
From: Donuel
Date: 18 May 22 - 08:49 PM

"Life is the universe developing memory"