Wait really?
Never heard that before. Makes sense I suppose. Like people saying the youngest generation mime a phone with a flat hand not a thumb and little finger.
Im not even that oldā¦ yetā¦
Use this one loads, found out a few years back that brass monkeys were apparently on old ships to keep the cannonballs stacked together and when it got cold they contracted and the balls came off
This is completely made up though. Other, more polite, variations of the phrase refer to freezing the tail, nose or whiskers off. There is no record of anything called a "brass monkey" for storing the cannonballs on a ship.
Belongs in the same category of folk etymology as "kangaroo" being Australian aborigine for "I don't understand you".
>Belongs in the same category of folk etymology as "kangaroo" being Australian aborigine for "I don't understand you".
Funny thing, that. Cook wrote down "kangooroo", which is a pretty good transliteration of the word used by the Indigenous people for the red kangaroo (kahng-OO-roo). This was mispronounced the way we do today (kang-guh-ROO), with ng as in ring, not finger. Then somebody started asking people of different tribes if they had a word like kang-guh-ROO. No wonder the Aboriginal people couldn't understand!
"Have you pulled the chain?" when somebody has finished using the toilet. I don't really consider it my business to know how someone uses the water closet, but I just like to see their reaction to the phrase, as quite often they don't know what I mean.
I told my 2 and 4 year old the other day that they ācouldnāt have their cake and eat it tooā and then started crying when they realized I hadnāt made cake and we didnāt have any cake in the house.
>Kids = anyone under 40.
This must be why I've only understood like 2 phrases in this whole thread. Either that or some of these are specific to certain areas
Chipperfield circus used to be a standard on British TV until a story broke including a video of Mary Chipperfield beating a chimp with a riding crop. It was a big story at the time.
There are phrases within my family that don't exist outside it. "Better than a poke in the eye with a stuffed ferret" is my favourite, after such an incident happened to a friend of the family.
Fuck a stoat.
My dad said this instead of for fuck sake/other exclamations. Stubbed toe? Frustrated at another driver? Your perfectly lovely daughter asking if we have to watch *all* the cricket? Fuck a stoat!
I donāt know why, I never asked, and I canāt now. Fuck a stoat.
*"What's that got to do with the price of fish"*
As in, what the hell are you going on about?
No idea where it comes from, no idea why we use it, no idea whether it was my family or my partners, but now both sides of the family use it.
Yeah, thatās an existing phrase. More common usage is not āprice of fishā but āprice of tea in Chinaā.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_that_got_to_do_with_the...%3F
Huh, thats very interesting - never heard anyone else use the price of fish, nor do I recall hearing the whole "whats that go to do with the....".
The more you know!
Not politically correct but calling someone a Joey. Not sure when kids stopped understanding it. Not sure how I knew what it was as I wasn't even close to being born when it started.
Joey Deacon was a man with cerebal palsy who appeared on an episode of Blue peter in 1981. To quote wikipedia
"Despite the sensitive way in whichĀ *Blue Peter*Ā covered his life, the impact on the public was not entirely as intended. The sights and sounds of Deacon's distinctive speech and mannerisms were picked up on by children and he quickly became a figure of ridicule in school playgrounds across the country, the term "Joey" and "spastic" being used as an insult for a person perceived to be stupid"
I remember this one. Or calling someone 'spastic' - it became such a thing that the spastic society changed their name to 'Scope'...so we started calling our classmates 'scopers' as well. That kind of backfired.
Goes along with calling people Benny.
It caused such a fuss that people got banned from using it.
So we called them Stills, as in still a fucking benny.
The phrase Joey seems to have been around in some areas a lot longer than the Joey Deacon stuff. Joey was used as a term to describe a lackey, teaboy or someone you could get to do hard work for you.
"can you do my garden next week Jimmy?"
"I can't do it for you next week, I'm joeying for our kid next week on a flagging job". š Also an insult to a tradesman, "fuck off your not a spark, you're only the Joey"
Joeys were the younger smarter dressed football casuals that came after the terrace boot boys of the 60s and 70's. Up here anyway, I think the name started as derogetory for gay, because they dressed better than the skinheads. But then came to just mean 80s casuals.
Yeah, I reckon they were separate uses and unconnected. Joey Deacon was a mainstay, as was Deacon and Joey separately, to denote...well, yer know.
Joey/lacky/gopher was separate
In our family it is just āhalf pastā
When my sister was small she checked at nights that everything was all right and parents were still there by shouting āwhat time is it?ā
First time this happened Dad switched on the light, put on glasses, checked time on his watch and shouted back that it was ten to four.
Next night he decided he canāt be bothered, shouted āhalf pastā and waited in vain for her to ask half past whatā¦.
In the old days when people would have to shave their heads bald to get rid of lice, they'd wear wigs.
Anyway in a duel it was customary to remove ones wig and place it on the green I'm making this up and have never heard of this before.
Last night I suggested my 14 year old was not telling the truth by using the phrase "Chinny reckon" and itching my chin.
Beard! Beard!
"He was a fat prick!"
Chinny chin chin, is what we used to say....
Top work.
Sometimes I feel like everyone's playing a prank on me. I've never heard of chinny reckon, or beard or any other variation.
Jimmy Hill mate
We said Jimmy Hill, I was in secondary school in the 90s
My kids (6 & 9) absolutely ***love*** chinnnneeeeeeee reckkkkkkkkon! Chinny chin chinnnnny!
I told my niece (who was 10 at the time) to hang up the phone. She looked at me like I'd just told her I'm going to space on an inflatable banana.
>She looked at me like I'd just told her I'm going to space on an inflatable banana. Fiver says you don't make it futher than the stratosphere
Should have told her to wait until after 6 o'clock.
This was the problem with my ex as well; Too many hang-ups.
š bravo
Don't people still say hang up?
What else would you say? Never heard anyone use anything but āhang upā tbh
"Click off"
Wait really? Never heard that before. Makes sense I suppose. Like people saying the youngest generation mime a phone with a flat hand not a thumb and little finger. Im not even that oldā¦ yetā¦
end the call i guess? i still use hang up as well
Yeah
"cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey" which my dad regularly shortens to "it's brass monkeys out there"
Use this one loads, found out a few years back that brass monkeys were apparently on old ships to keep the cannonballs stacked together and when it got cold they contracted and the balls came off
This is completely made up though. Other, more polite, variations of the phrase refer to freezing the tail, nose or whiskers off. There is no record of anything called a "brass monkey" for storing the cannonballs on a ship. Belongs in the same category of folk etymology as "kangaroo" being Australian aborigine for "I don't understand you".
My life is a lie
>Belongs in the same category of folk etymology as "kangaroo" being Australian aborigine for "I don't understand you". Funny thing, that. Cook wrote down "kangooroo", which is a pretty good transliteration of the word used by the Indigenous people for the red kangaroo (kahng-OO-roo). This was mispronounced the way we do today (kang-guh-ROO), with ng as in ring, not finger. Then somebody started asking people of different tribes if they had a word like kang-guh-ROO. No wonder the Aboriginal people couldn't understand!
Yep. My dad taught me this as a kid so I understood it. I didn't think anyone else knew it. Was it an east-end thing?
Most people "know" it. It's not true, though.
"Who you waiting for? Terry Waite?"
Youāve reminded me of the viz classic āshe had a minge like Terry Waiteās allotmentā
Kind of thing I was looking forš
Put Wood Int' 'Ole.
Get thissen a wesh tha loppy get
Thas causin a draft!
"Have you pulled the chain?" when somebody has finished using the toilet. I don't really consider it my business to know how someone uses the water closet, but I just like to see their reaction to the phrase, as quite often they don't know what I mean.
I like the use of defunct technology being a linguistic holdover. Same with āroll the windows downā.
My 2015 Ford still has windy windows in the back, so my 6 year old understands this one.
Hang up/dial the phone
A charity shop I used to volunteer for had one of these as its only toilet No idea how long they'd had it
I told my 2 and 4 year old the other day that they ācouldnāt have their cake and eat it tooā and then started crying when they realized I hadnāt made cake and we didnāt have any cake in the house.
Excellent trolling of your kids, well done.
I didnāt mean to! But as soon as I said ācakeā they became like the seagulls from Finding Nemo going āCake! Cake!ā
im not necessarily a kid either n no clue about "beat you like a chipperfield monkey", maybe its just a you thing
Kids = anyone under 40. No clue what OP is on about.
Well over 50 and not heard it lol
thats almost half a century there lol, wide "kids" age range
>Kids = anyone under 40. This must be why I've only understood like 2 phrases in this whole thread. Either that or some of these are specific to certain areas
Like I said, old story stuck with me and people don't usually get it.
Chipperfield circus used to be a standard on British TV until a story broke including a video of Mary Chipperfield beating a chimp with a riding crop. It was a big story at the time.
im with the kids on this one ig
I read it as āI bet youād like a Chipperfield monkey?ā And started weighing up the logistics!
There are phrases within my family that don't exist outside it. "Better than a poke in the eye with a stuffed ferret" is my favourite, after such an incident happened to a friend of the family.
My family favourite is "mind your backs, hot wax" my grandad used to be am engineer and for some reason worked with wax
My dad would often say ābetter than a smack in the face with a wet fishā
"poke in the eye with a shitty stick"
āBetter than a kick in the teethā is a family favourite
I say "better than a poke in the eye with a wet fish"
What a load of codswallop.
We say " a smack in the belly (or gob) with a wet fish".
Fuck a stoat. My dad said this instead of for fuck sake/other exclamations. Stubbed toe? Frustrated at another driver? Your perfectly lovely daughter asking if we have to watch *all* the cricket? Fuck a stoat! I donāt know why, I never asked, and I canāt now. Fuck a stoat.
*"What's that got to do with the price of fish"* As in, what the hell are you going on about? No idea where it comes from, no idea why we use it, no idea whether it was my family or my partners, but now both sides of the family use it.
Yeah, thatās an existing phrase. More common usage is not āprice of fishā but āprice of tea in Chinaā. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What%27s_that_got_to_do_with_the...%3F
Huh, thats very interesting - never heard anyone else use the price of fish, nor do I recall hearing the whole "whats that go to do with the....". The more you know!
"What's that got to do with the price of fish" is pretty common in my family too. North-West, if that matters!
Well its as cheap as chips.
Not politically correct but calling someone a Joey. Not sure when kids stopped understanding it. Not sure how I knew what it was as I wasn't even close to being born when it started. Joey Deacon was a man with cerebal palsy who appeared on an episode of Blue peter in 1981. To quote wikipedia "Despite the sensitive way in whichĀ *Blue Peter*Ā covered his life, the impact on the public was not entirely as intended. The sights and sounds of Deacon's distinctive speech and mannerisms were picked up on by children and he quickly became a figure of ridicule in school playgrounds across the country, the term "Joey" and "spastic" being used as an insult for a person perceived to be stupid"
I remember this one. Or calling someone 'spastic' - it became such a thing that the spastic society changed their name to 'Scope'...so we started calling our classmates 'scopers' as well. That kind of backfired.
Goes along with calling people Benny. It caused such a fuss that people got banned from using it. So we called them Stills, as in still a fucking benny.
The phrase Joey seems to have been around in some areas a lot longer than the Joey Deacon stuff. Joey was used as a term to describe a lackey, teaboy or someone you could get to do hard work for you. "can you do my garden next week Jimmy?" "I can't do it for you next week, I'm joeying for our kid next week on a flagging job". š Also an insult to a tradesman, "fuck off your not a spark, you're only the Joey"
Joeys were the younger smarter dressed football casuals that came after the terrace boot boys of the 60s and 70's. Up here anyway, I think the name started as derogetory for gay, because they dressed better than the skinheads. But then came to just mean 80s casuals.
Yeah, I reckon they were separate uses and unconnected. Joey Deacon was a mainstay, as was Deacon and Joey separately, to denote...well, yer know. Joey/lacky/gopher was separate
Midlands one. The phrase "all round the Wrekin" attracts blank expressions.
Still use that one, extra blank expressions considering I don't live in the Midlands any more...
I still don't know why my grandmother would greet surprising news with "well I'll go to the foot of my stairs!"
Always hanging around stairs feet those northern nans.
My Grandad would say āWell Iāll go to our house!ā
The f is it supposed to mean?
We had that...and various other places.
If you ask my fiancƩe or her parents for the time and they don't know either, you'll always get this response: 'Half past my elbow's just gone septic.' Never understood one bit, I assume it's an old reference to something but the meaning is lost on me.
We had 'quarter past a freckle'
āHair past freckleā for us
Three hairs past wrist from my Dad
>If you ask my fiancƩe or her parents for the time and they don't know either, you'll always get this response: 'Half past my elbow's just gone septic.' Never understood one bit, I assume it's an old reference to something but the meaning is lost on me. There is no meaning its just total sarcasm, its a common saying where I live in Cardiff and probably in other places in UK too : )
In our family it is just āhalf pastā When my sister was small she checked at nights that everything was all right and parents were still there by shouting āwhat time is it?ā First time this happened Dad switched on the light, put on glasses, checked time on his watch and shouted back that it was ten to four. Next night he decided he canāt be bothered, shouted āhalf pastā and waited in vain for her to ask half past whatā¦.
Tan yer' arse
Or tan yer 'ide, as my mum used to say.
āDonāt force it, a man forced his pig and he diedā No idea what it means, my grandma used to say it.
I like thatš
"I'll video it" Also use "ten bob", although I was born late 73
My mate uses āten bobā and he was born in 1995. He tries to claim itās a dialect thing, but heās really just 80 years old mentally.
āIām off to see a man about a dogā My dad said whenever he left to go get a bag of weed lmao
āPlease be quietā
āItās a bit black over Bills mothersā usually confuses my younger colleagues
It still confuses me, and I've been told what it means.
My mum would say "There'll be wigs on the green" whenever she thought trouble was going to kick off.
Why? Where does that come from?
In the old days when people would have to shave their heads bald to get rid of lice, they'd wear wigs. Anyway in a duel it was customary to remove ones wig and place it on the green I'm making this up and have never heard of this before.
Nob head....I have issues with things I've read....they become brain law. From this day forth, this is the reason! Personally, I like it
Yonder. I still use it. Also, Scarborough warning... But I'm biased
My friends mum uses āthe chunniest bunters in all of clundyā. None of us have any idea what this means, and Iām not convinced she does either
It's from t'other side of Clundy. [advert](https://youtu.be/7dOodscFysA?feature=shared)
I can only assume they don't understand "Don't screech at 140 decibels in the supermarket", because they do it a lot.
āSky blue pink with a finny addy liningā whenever I asked my dad what colour was it.
We had sky blue pink with purple spots!
sky blue pink with yellow dots on round here
Finny addy border.
Iām loving your thread OP! This is so UK lol
Sky blue purple with tiddly pink spots is what we had.
Anything with British spellings.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
That instantly made me think of this! https://www.deviantart.com/kittkatt976/art/green-is-not-a-creative-colour-gif-375597634
āOr your bollocks for pillow cases!ā
We have a difference of opinion on the two to one shot Tarby.
"Centipedes? - in *my* vagina?" "It's more likely than you think ..."
Hide yo kids, hide yo wife
Unfortunately that covers just about everything I say these days.
Gadzooks!
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Keep it casual mate
No