"I'm going to see a man about a dog" meant that you were going to use the toilet.
Carol
Anyone speeding "must be a traveller for nutmegs." "selling shim shams for wedlars" "having a face like a blind cobblers thumb" "having a face like a diseased paunch" When scratching their bottom it was"home made rice pudding tomorrow" Would love to hear more , time to revive these descriptive sayings!
Lisalucie, those black country sayings made me giggle, I remember them all. My black country grandad used to refer to to the dog as "the wammal".
Just remembered another..... "She looks like blancmange in a sprout bag" when referring to a larger lady wearing too tight clothes showing her bulges.
What's for tea? - bread and catchit
alienlady, I've not heard that wind rhyme in ages, lol.
A blind man on a galloping horse won't notice, when trying to justify something not quite perfect. (or gallopin' 'oss as we would say)
Alien Lady - if someone was scratching their bottom, Dad would say "he's got dirt in his eye".Similar to this my dad whilst scratching used to say 'I've got an new tooth coming through'
and keep your hand on your ha'penny! lolMy God :o :o how I remember that saying ;D ;D
where'er you be,let your wind go free. In church or chapel let it rattle!
Lang may yer lum reek.
Guyana, thanks for explaining that , I would never have guessed. Seems a national pastime , mothers running away with black men lol. Love to know its origins.
If your hand itches somebody is going to give you money
If your nose itches someone is talking about you
Asking someone to close the door: "Put wood int' 'ole (Were ya born in a barn?)"
My Ayrshire granny used to say if something was quite right- like a picture hanging crooked on the wall or curtains not hung right - " It's all aff tae one side like Gourock".
Don't know if Gourock does sit off to the side ???.
Great stuff...on greed..."He could peel an orange in his pocket"....or..."Squeeze a penny til the Queen cried for mercy"
Carol
More Lancashire ones:
"Yer standin' there like one o' Lewis's" = You're not making yourself very useful
One of old saying used in those days was if you were climbing mother would say "Don't come running to me if you fall off and break your leg"
The bread and pullit for tea was always a disappointment, as I thought pullit was pullet and expected chicken sandwiches.
Forgot to add that as a child I overheard two family members discussing an aunt & uncle who had
13 children, saying "He only has to take his trousers off & she has a baby," and for quite a long time
I believed that to be a fact of life.
(Well, we were more sheltered Back in the Day, weren't we?) Everlea.
I live in a secluded village in the middle of Switzerland.
Imagine my surprise when walking the dog, I passed a van bearing a message in the windscreen:
If it's got tits or wheels, you have problems
I have a little giggle each morning
;D Have not as of yet read through all the posts, but hopefully I am not repeating one mentioned earlier, my Mother and Father used to say if I I had come home in a unclean state, " You're as black as Newgates Knocker" Newgate being pronounced as Newgits ( Referring to the colour of the knocker on the door of Newgate prison) so I was told?!
Keyboard86
Must be a boy thing SwissGIll! lol
One from my Granny-
'old Uncle Cobley and all'
Yes...I know it as "Uncle Tom Cobley" too.
Carol
I am trying to recall one about twixt and tween and having no luck. Perhaps it will strike a chord with someone here.
I am trying to recall one about twixt and tween and having no luck. Perhaps it will strike a chord with someone here.
ooops! lol. It was told me by a yorkshire woman born and bred .
Steve, I wonder what happened in a strong wind? lol
If one hand itched you were going to be given some money, if the other itched you would be giving it away (sorry, cannot remember which is which) :-\
"I'm not as green as I'm cabbage looking"-my mum used to say this when she thought you were trying to fool her.
make sure you have clean knickers on, you might get run over by a car.
Look at the state of that compared to the price of cheese!
"If that doesn't cover it , neither will a dustbin lid!" (When offering a monetary contribution)
radstockjeff
she had a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp
"About as useful as a ashtray on a motor bike
Oi...be careful....some of us are not only from Yorkshire...but Hull too :P ;D ;D ;D ;D
Carol ;)
Hells bells and buckets of blood!
A whistling girl and a crowing hen always come to a bad end.My mum used to tell me "A whistling girl and a crowing hen is good for neither God nor man" ;D
Hells bells and buckets of blood!
she had a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp
If you pulled a face someone would say "careful, if the wind blows you'll stick like it"Turned round and said has always amused me, seems like a conversation between two whirling dervishes!
oh and I wondered if its just local to the Midlands, but a common phrase when retelling a conversation -
"and I turned round and said..." Why do you turn round to say??? I have heard myself saying it!! But why?
she had a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp
I can just picture that - thank goodness I've just finished my coffee
Another two come to mind:
As rare as hen's teeth
and
As often as Preston Guild (which I have since found out after nearly 60 years is every 10 years and I always thought never )
" were you born in a barn"
she had a face like a bulldog chewing a wasp
I can just picture that - thank goodness I've just finished my coffee
Happy Birthday SwissGill....a photo of Sale from my collection. c. 1940s ;D ;D ;D
Carol
I 'heard' myself using some old sayings today....... a person stood in front of me when I was speaking to someone and I said " you make a better door than you do a window!" as I now live in a completely different county than I was born/brought up in...I found myself explaining what I meant....and " were you born in a barn"...when he 'forgot' to close the outside door that got me a 'funny look' and he answered, "NO! in the hospital" which made me laugh
...and then realised that many of these sayings were used in a 'sarcastic' way instead of challenging someone directly, I also realised that I can't remember many of them, so I use them as a 'normal' part of language as today on several occasions I was asked what I meant
If you answered back......" One more crack like that and you'll fall down it"
"Eat your crusts..it will make your hair curl"
"Eat your fat...it will put lard on your liver"
Carol
When my Grandad saw an elderly person walking in the cemetery he would say it's hardly worth them going home lol
if you can't be good be careful!
"Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater"do you know where the saying comes from don't throw the baby out with the bath water
"Don't do as I do..do as I say"
Carol
Yes...I did know...the water was so dirty you couldn't see the baby ;D ;D ;Djust imagine yuk
Carol
"Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater"
Carol
Dont put all your eggs in one basket.
Dont count your chickens until they re all hatched.
Or, regarding the cinema in Bilbao, "Don't put all your Basques in one exit."
Dont put all your eggs in one basket.
Dont count your chickens until they re all hatched.
or
Ne vendez pas la peau de l’ours avant de l’avoir tué
Or, regarding the cinema in Bilbao, "Don't put all your Basques in one exit."
[Marry in haste, repent in leisureOR!
[[[[Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.
[
There was a little girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead,or as Max Miller once said
When she was good she was very very good and when she was bad she was horrid!
Not sure if that was a 'family saying' or not :-\
"Fortnight tea" - that was a saying in our house - too weak!!
"Bent as a Nine Bob note"
Carol
if I used to say to my mother
it's not fair she would say neither is a blackmans a*s*
Much of a muchness or They are the same only different
A slight variation of your 'brass monkey'........that's the one I know!!!
It is cold enough to freeze the b*lls off a brass monkey
In anticipation of something unexpected or surprising happening. For example:-
If my football team wins the cup, I'll show my a*s* on the Town Hall steps.
Also heard an alternative ending - "in Woolworth's window".
Malcolm
When I was young the older generation always used to say "You'll catch your pip", if you went out underdressed in winter or sat on a cold stone wall etc. I used to wonder what my "pip" was, I suppose it might have been a slang word for pneumonia.according to chambers dict "pip" is "roup" in poultry. Looked up "roup" then - that is an infectious disease of the respiratory passages of poultry. Now Im wondering is that where the term, "feeling a bit ropey" comes from!
Thank you for that! A chest infection is on the right track then. Could well be the root of the term "ropey". We could throw about these words if there is another Chicken Flu scare![/list]When I was young the older generation always used to say "You'll catch your pip", if you went out underdressed in winter or sat on a cold stone wall etc. I used to wonder what my "pip" was, I suppose it might have been a slang word for pneumonia.according to chambers dict "pip" is "roup" in poultry, looked up "roup" then, that is an infectious disease of the respiratory passages of poultry. Now Im wondering is that where the term, "feeling a bit ropey" comes from!
Here it was you will catch your death.
It's money for old rope.
Treetotal what was kincough when it was at home lol.
Two my Yorkshire grandmother used a lot were:
"Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs" when told anything surprising.
"Doesn't know if they're Arthur or Martha" for someone in a muddle or confused.
snaptoo, my Dad would say every time you talk you miss a mouthful. Not as good as your version.
Said to departing visitors, you must come again when you can't stay so long.
Not sure if these have been on here.
"As thick as two short planks"
When something was lost " It's probably up ,in Annie's room behind the clock"
radstockjeff
It's not the cough that carries you off
It's the coffin they carry you off in
What is a harrow pin please Conahy?
A harrow is a spiked frame for breaking up or levelling soil and the "pins" are the spikes.
- Alls well that ends well
- Every good thing must come to an end
- A pigeons clutch (family with two children)
- Could eat harrow pins (starving)
London the largest city in England, and the dirtiest, and the bubonic plague lasted within that city alone from late fall of 1348 until early summer of 1349. About thirty thousand of London's seventy thousand inhabitants suffered and died from plague.
My cockney grandad used to see us every Sunday and he would pull my shirt up and say 'How's yer belly orf for spots' which was a saying used by Londoners that goes back to the plague. :( :(
My get up and go has got up and gone!
My get up and go has got up and gone!
Watch out where the huskies go and don't you eat that yellow snow!
Watch out where the huskies go and don't you eat that yellow snow!
I am not sure if this has been said My Mother used to say were you born in a tent ( when Dad left the door open ) and he would say no but my brother was ( he really was ). :) Take Care Lynette
Just remembered that there were 2 more lines - not the same as yours, Carol - trouble is I can only remember one of them!
......................down below
Just popped up to say hello!
pulling his p*sser
Taking the mickey out of him
Both mean the same, but how is it that I know these kind of ones anyway?
Bev
A couple more I remember my parents using.Or, a face like a smacked ar**
I was stood there like cheese at fourpence (I think it means ignored or left on your own)
You've got a face like a wet weekend
Malcolm
A couple my wife remembers.
It's no good being the richest corpse in the graveyard.
Malcolm
Here is one that I have just used on another thread........
Keep your pecker up
Opinions are like armpits.
Everyone's got at least two of them, and most of them stink.
"Lord help me to keep my big mouth shut until I know what I am talking about"
Carol
I am not sure if this has been said My Mother used to say were you born in a tent ( when Dad left the door open ) and he would say no but my brother was ( he really was ). :) Take Care Lynette
I am not sure if this has been said My Mother used to say were you born in a tent ( when Dad left the door open ) and he would say no but my brother was ( he really was ). :) Take Care Lynette
The traditional English one for this is "born in Bardney" ... and the explanation (which is found in Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People is that the monks of Bardney once refused hospitality to a stranger in a storm, as a result of which the stranger died. As a penance they were required to live with all their doors wide open for ever after.
"Fortnight tea" - that was a saying in our house - too weak!!
My Dad called it gnat's pee
And if I brought him a cup of tea not quite full, he'd say "bring the scissors so I can cut it to match the tea".
The version of that one which I heard (which has the merit of actually scanning) was:My late mother in law said "Never in a man" She did have me to put up with of course.
Patience is a virtue
Find it if you can
Often in a woman
Seldom in a man
I've noticed a few "penny" related ones but don't think these have been mentioned.
- in for a penny, in for a pound
- look after the pennies, and the pounds will look after themselves
Malcolm
A sandwich short for a picnic. A brick missing from a wall
Graham
I remember my mum telling a similar story but as "keep your hand on your ha'penny". I think it might have been used in a song.
Inflation, eh ?
And I think you know very well what she meant !!
QuoteA sandwich short for a picnic. A brick missing from a wallAnother version used is "They are not the full shilling"
One they have here in Wales (allegedly) "There's posh, getting married and not even pregnant!" ;D
One of my old Dad's favorites sayings was that when he was in the Army, he was so skinny he had to run around in the shower to get wet! Many others he had are unrepeatable here. ;)
If you can't beat 'em, join 'em
Is that Jean Leon?
"Don't try to teach your Grandma to suck eggs"
Royal Horse GuardsIs that Jean Leon?
Looks like somebody in The Household Cavalry to me,
Thick as two short planks
Queer as a nine bob note
going up the boohai shooting pukekos with a long-handled shovel
My mother had two sayings (amongst others), one was when we wanted to know where something was. Mum would say it was up in Annie's room behind the clock. Now I have wondered if she was saying up in Nanny's room behind the clock.
Did anyone else have this saying?
The other was that you have to eat a peck of dirt before you die. I thought it meant a speck but I later learned it was an old imperial measure and quite substantial.
going up the boohai shooting pukekos with a long-handled shovel
???
going up the boohai shooting pukekos with a long-handled shovel
You have experience of them Graham ? he he
This wont get the bairn a new coat
going up the boohai shooting pukekos with a long-handled shovel
???
Are we making these up now? ;D
going up the boohai shooting pukekos with a long-handled shovel
Ahhhh ............ getting totally lost whilst shooting, for some reason with a shovel with a long handle, the Purple Swamphens (Porphyrio porphyrio) of New Zealand. ;D ;D ;D
"You'll have worse than that before you die" is another one I have just remembered. Used to cheer
me up not end that one :)
And as true as you like another one from Wales.
Red Sky at night the sheep are alight, red sky in the morning..... the farmhouse is! ;D
Last but not least one I'm taking credit for ;) "I know where I am, I've been lost here before!
Was that " showing next weeks washing"?
You could say it actually, because as I bent over to switch the TV Channels before leaving the house, my Dad said "Sybil, are you going to allow your daughter to go out in that skimpy dress showing her knickers?"
Well, blow me down
Popeye?
"Corporation Pop". (tap water for anyone who doesn't know)
Yes, we had Corporation Pop too.
Tasted better then though, and that isn't the memory failing. The water was definitely softer, and no chemical taste.
Has anyone said 'Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs' ?
Never did understand why not go halfway, or all the way up. :-\
One my wife remembers from her Scottish mum.
"What's yours is mine .... and what's mine's my own !!"
Sounds like a marriage vow ??
Malcolm
Many years ago the local vicar would say Well I'll go to the foot of our font!
As a small child I remember asking where I came from and being told I came from a twinkle in my father's eye . Wow! Magic!
As a small child I remember asking where I came from and being told I came from a twinkle in my father's eye . Wow! Magic!
Cough it up, it might be a gold watch ???
Not the gooseberry bush or mulberry with us. It used to be "found you under a head of cabbage"
Conahy is that a local saying ? I have never heard that one before.I ve heard it numerous times around Kilkenny, but unable to say if more widespread than that
As a small child I remember asking where I came from and being told I came from a twinkle in my father's eye . Wow! Magic!
I remember being told that I was found under a mulberry bush.
Malcolm
Thinking more about this, I think it was "under a gooseberry bush" that I was told.
Just checked on its origin - see link below. Now, that did surprise me !!
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110831051116AA67AyQ
Let sleeping dogs lie.
;)
I am thoroughly disgusted with those who say the topic should be over by now.
It is the same ones who are saying this all the time so the obvious thing to do is not read them when someone puts something on for the enjoyment of others who are still enjoying hearing some of the old sayings.
They can always put a stop sending me emails regarding the subject - or do they just like to disagree because they can?
Bev
Well said Bev !
To those who are complaining about the number of pages taken up with Old Sayings, I say grow up! We are all here to help each other with our family history I know, but a little bit of relaxation doesn't hurt anyone.Well, Bev, not sure that people are complaining ???. I think we are all wondering that the mods have not locked the site by now. Maybe the 20 page limit is only for FH related boards?
I for one wouldn't like to meet some of those complaining, as to me I think they must be a boring lot and they still want to grumble about this topic don't they? So it seems to me that they are trying to force their opinions on to all others and they must be right at all costs.
Kind regards
Bev
author=alienlady link=topic=660102.msg5126788#msg5126788 date=1384075166
Possibly getting a book of sayings for charity if enough were collected. Maybe that is why it has been left to run ,I don't know.
whats for tea? iffit pie.......... if you eat it that's ok but if you don't you'll go hungry
Sue - I wish you the best of luck if you decide to go ahead with the book, it will be a lot of work but it will be a most interesting, worthwhile and rewarding project should it go ahead.
I shall watch to see if you start another thread as initially, before the thread got so long, I certainly enjoyed reading the old sayings particularly the ones that had an explanation of how they originated.
I wonder if you can now claim to be the originator of the longest RC thread ever? I have no idea, but someone will have the answer. ;D
Regards,
Maggie :)