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Funny old sayings that give away (y)our age

(131 Posts)
Grannyknot Tue 11-Sept-12 22:53:21

I said at work today 'I doff my hat to you' and my colleague looked at me blankly. I also recently said 'photo-stat machine' till a young colleague said 'Why do you say that, instead of photocopier?' (blush). I wondered why myself, and then remembered about roneo-stat machines, but decided against trying to explain to a 23 year old. No wonder DD sometimes says to me "How do you still fool them at work, woman?" grin

Elegran Sun 16-Sept-12 12:17:41

It was a good episode, Soop lots of "badinage" with Victoria Coren giving as good as she got (but pretending to be shocked at times at Jimmy Carr)

Don't let Mr Soop laugh too hard at it, it will set his recovery back.

Sook Sun 16-Sept-12 12:11:46

Thank you Elegran I will take a look. It's unbelievable how many meanings one little word can have.

feetlebaum I'm a former Wirral girl ( Seaside Scouser) it's definately a pan of scouse for me grin. I had heard of the Scandanavian connection and of course there was a huge influx of Irish immigrants to Liverpool who had their very own Irish stew. At home ours was always made with the cheapest cuts of lamb and must go veggies usually carrots, spuds, onion. The non meat version was called Blind Scouse.

Marelli Sun 16-Sept-12 10:03:44

vampirequeen, my dad told me that Yorkshire had as many acres as there were letters in the Bible. smile

feetlebaum Sun 16-Sept-12 09:44:49

@sook : "Where I live now lobby means a pan of stew."

Ah... would that be a link to the Liverpudlian 'pan of scouse' - scouse being from a Scandinavian word, 'lobskaus'? Forgive me if my spelling there is a bit how's yer father...

Elegran Sun 16-Sept-12 08:59:54

28 meanings of "jigger" as defined on GI - measuring device, handcar, sail, small weight, snooker rest, flea, prison cell, boot-sole polisher, odd-looking person, distillery, penis, cooper's knife, potter's wheel, back passage, lathe, women's coat, sieve, dancer, pulley, door, golf club, ouija board, policeman, vagina, thingummy.

Yes the episode is on i-Player, as "QI - Series J - 1. Jargon" with Victoria Coren, Bill Bailey, Jimmy Carr (cheeky in this one but not as coarse as he sometimes can be) and Alan Davies.

Elegran Sun 16-Sept-12 08:32:59

Jiggery-pokery? Well, I'll be jiggered!

I wish now I had noted them all down. Will see if it is on I-Player.

Joan Sat 15-Sept-12 23:07:46

Elegran said.

"Stephen Fry had sveral dozen meanings for jigger, some of them very odd."

My husband was a sailor back in the dim mists of time. He remembers walking through Singapore when a young lad came up to him and said 'Jigger jig my sister mister, only half a crown" He told the lad to bugger off, but later wished he'd given him the money to give his sister a break.

annodomini Sat 15-Sept-12 22:33:44

A jigger in East Africa was an insect that burrowed into one's toes!

Sook Sat 15-Sept-12 22:18:02

Elegran I didn't watch QI will google jigger though just for interest.

Anagram There is a row of terraced houses in Port Sunlight Village (Wirral) named The Ginnel.

Elegran Sat 15-Sept-12 22:08:25

You must have been watching QI, sook. Stephen Fry had sveral dozen meanings for jigger, some of them very odd.

Anagram Sat 15-Sept-12 22:06:22

That's a ginnel! grin

Sook Sat 15-Sept-12 22:04:43

My mum and nan called knickers drawers.

Our small entrance hall was called a lobby. Where I live now lobby means a pan of stew.

A jigger was an alleyway between back to back houses, also referred to as an entry.

vampirequeen Sat 15-Sept-12 21:10:14

Yorkshire is a big county....probably cos it's God's own... and language seems to have developed differently depending on where you live. I'm from East Yorkshire lass married to a West Yorkshire lad (a Wessie) and sometimes we seem to speak different languages. For example he calls a breadcake a teacake which is odd because to me a teacake is sweeter and has raisins in it.

I show my age when I talk about baps. These are small breadcakes to me but apparently the word has a whole different meaning more in line with the Kate topless issue smile

trendygran Sat 15-Sept-12 17:33:02

I grew up in Yorkshire and never heard of 'sandshoes' as a child . We always called them 'pumps ' or P.E. shoes.

soop Thu 13-Sept-12 12:40:40

feetlebaum You are right. I was wrong. It was 1952-ish.

feetlebaum Thu 13-Sept-12 12:38:10

The Big Smog was in the early Fifties - '52 I think. It lasted for a week - and thousands died as a result of it...

An expression of my mother's that I liked - of someone who would be shocked by something - 'Ooh! She'll have a pink fit with her leg up...'

soop Thu 13-Sept-12 11:51:51

Smog! I was at school in early 60s when the town was enveloped in thick yellow-tinged smog. Traffic stopped. We girls had to walk about 4 miles home. I remember how quiet, and eerie, and other-worldly the town seemed. hmm

absentgrana Thu 13-Sept-12 11:44:24

The peasoupers in London were also known as London particulars. Then, going full circle, someone invented a recipe called London Particular which is a pea soup with pig's trotters.

Littlenellie Thu 13-Sept-12 09:19:36

ella used to tie a scarf around my face which was soaking wet by the time you got home...mum wanted me to wear a balaclava,which I refused ,I realised when she wanted me to wear it through the summer too,that she did have a problem with me being an ugly child,and the peasoupers was a good excuse to keep me undercover grin

Oldgreymare Thu 13-Sept-12 09:13:14

Last night's post lost so backtracking!
My Mum had aspirations to be middle class so said plimsols as we did until we started school then they were pumps.
She also said : 'Don't stare, Mrs........ is not all there'. That meant we stared all the more to see which bits were missing!

Ella46 Thu 13-Sept-12 09:12:50

Then when, when you got home you had a smoggy face with smudges around your nose!

whenim64 Thu 13-Sept-12 08:45:00

I remember walking the four miles home from work, having been allowed to leave at 3pm because of pea souper fog in the 60s. There was no transport. I didn't see a soul, and it was eerily quiet. I had to retrace my steps several times when I missed turnings, and to this day I still don't know how I got home in one piece.

Bags Thu 13-Sept-12 08:41:12

"Not the full shilling" of someone about whom it is now said "one sandwich short of a picnic."

Bags Thu 13-Sept-12 08:40:06

anno, my Dundonian mother-in-law's posh aunt infused tea too. We just used to mek it.

Littlenellie Thu 13-Sept-12 08:32:41

My dad had a motor bike and side car...before we went up market and got a Robin Reliant....when I got to about 12 I was allowed to ride pillion to give enough room to my mum and little brother,( thinking of that scene in "on The buses" when Olive in the sidecar parts company with her the old man driving the bike...when asked dad would say oh yes I have a BSA dubblerdolt motor bike it wasn't until many years later I found out a dubblerdolt motorbike and sidecar was in fact a double adult grin that flipping reliant robin ended up catching alight from the floorboards but that is another story altogether grin grin