Out-of-date sayings

Ah, it's coming back to me now!

Can we have a "like" button please!

U and Non-U was popularised by Nancy Mitford in the 1950s.

John Betjeman nailed it with his "How to Get On in Society":

Phone for the fish knives, Norman
As cook is a little unnerved;
You kiddies have crumpled the serviettes
And I must have things daintily served.

Are the requisites all in the toilet?
The frills round the cutlets can wait
Till the girl has replenished the cruets
And switched on the logs in the grate.

It's ever so close in the lounge dear,
But the vestibule's comfy for tea
And Howard is riding on horseback
So do come and take some with me.

Now here is a fork for your pastries
And do use the couch for your feet;
I know what I wanted to ask you-
Is trifle sufficient for sweet?

Milk and then just as it comes dear?
I'm afraid the preserve's full of stones;
Beg pardon, I'm soiling the doileys
With afternoon tea-cakes and scones.

That has been parodied in its turn...

How to get on in Society, 2011

Martin Parker (2011) (see website)

Top up my spray tan, Darren,
then phone up Hello and OK
and gold-plate the taps in the toilet.
The Beckhams are coming to stay!

I’ve just origamied the Andrex.
Have I time for another tattoo
in spurious Chinese, with dragons,
or maybe a blatant FU?

I’ve had my nails covered in glitter
and my eyelids and midriff as well.
My extensions are almost the shade of my hair
which is rigid with Superdrug gel.

But it’s hard for a girl to look “current”
when Manolos are something she lacks
and her nipple ring’s only nine carat
and it’s hours since she last had a wax.

That reminds me of the John Betjemann poem "phone for the fish knives Norman" that I had to do for an elocution exam back in my school days.
Do children still do elocution I wonder?

U and Non-U referred to language used by the so called Upper classes and the middle classes such as:

U lavatory
Non-U toilet

U sitting room
Non-U lounge

U Napkin
Non U serviette

U Pudding
Non U sweet

Hope that helps AlieOxon

Mum used to say "any road up", meaning anyway I think; suppose that could now be "whatever motorway".

The following is dialect , not strictly a saying, but must include it: (another of my mother's)

"You munna say wunna, it inna polite". When she was trying to make me speak properly!

.....what was that business about 'U' and 'Non-U' ?

Yes! I was so square I was positively cubical!

'Be there or be square'. Did we really call people 'square'? Young people wouldn't know what it meant nowadays. What do they call 'squares'?

We still say "it's so weak (week) it's almost a fortnight" when referring to tea Galen

My late grandad was a typical Geordie pitman and had quite a stong dialect. I know I am moving off subject ever so slightly but sometimes it was really difficult to work out what he was actually saying. I remember him trying to teach my (then) young son to "tark Geordie like what ahh dee".

We always used to mash t'tea and side t'table.

I guess it is mainly make the coffee and eat in front of the telly - no table these days.

Yorkshire in-laws used to 'mash the tea' and 'side the pots' - put the dishes away.

Penny wise pound foolish - tenner wise a million foolish? (I wish!)

Swing a cat I believe, refers to a cat o nine tails, not the miaow variety.

My grandad used to complain my mother's tea was 'fortnight tea' in other words two week/ too weak!

Yes, my SiL says mash the tea (Potteries?)

Anyway penny for them? ( or should I say a tenner for them)

When I moved from Leicester no one knew what "mardy" meant.

Yes Margaretm74 me duck! You are right midlands speak! I will make you a cup of tea but do let it mash properly.

Me duck in the midlands. Me luvver down here.

I haven't heard 'mardy' since we moved from the Midlands, nor 'meduck' either.

'Don't drink and dial' is a good one absent but presumably needs re-updating to 'Don't drink and text/post'

I wasn't thinking so much of individual words as actual sayings, proverbs and aphorisms. I wonder, for example, whether as white as snow might become as white as a television presenter's teeth. Look before you leap might metamorphose into think before you text. My own favourite – originating from my daughter is don't drink and dial.

I was born in Birmingham and we used the word mardy too and if we really wanted to tell someone off for being miserable we called them a Mardy arse !

Recently I heard my DIL (who was born on south coast) refer to my son as her hubby, another word from way back.

I make a point of using the old words to keep them in circulation.

Finally I am fed up with everyone I know pronouncing schedule as seckdule .

In West Yorkshire 'mardy' is 'mawngy'. I'm not sure of the spelling as I've never seen it written down.

We still use mardy. In fact, someone from darn sarf asked me what it meant and I was momentariky stumped for an explanationvit is so ingrained!

I almost fall over in shock if any one says 'meduck' nowadays.

Thanks Feetlebaum first for the brilliant poem and second for the W. C. Fields quote.

I just love the humour of W C F . I think he might have been the person who said 'Never appear with animals or children' - wise words.