What an odd phrase or saying!

The one I like is 'Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs', usually used sarcastically when some has said something blindingly obvious (why 'blindingly'?) as if it were a new and profound observation.

On our invariable damp and overcast 'holidays' at the British seaside my mother would declare that the sun would come out when there was "enough blue in the sky to make a pair of Dutchman's trousers". Oddly enough, she was often right...

Just googled the shake a stick origin. Seems to be either related to counting with a stick or threatening with a stick/ spear.

On a trip to The Victory in Portsmouth I was amazed with how many expressions come from old naval times on sailing ships.

Someone once told me that "too many to shake a stick at" related to there being too many of the enemy to throw a spear at, he was an ex soldier so perhaps that was just the way his mind worked!!

When my mother got annoyed she would say "Ye Gods and little fishes" - I think it was her form of swearing

One of my DH's favourites was "I didn't come up the Avon on a push bike" meaning I'm not an idiot (for those who don't know the Avon is a river!).

Heard the expression, "it's a bit black over Will's mother" , meaning, I think , that the weather looks dodgy.

And in our family "Going to see a man about a dog". Whenever someone was going out suddenly.

Thank you Sue for the explanation for the Buffs. I had no idea.

My dh acquired the 'shake a stick' expression when he was in the Royal Navy, along with many other expressions.

My father was in the Buffs during WW2. They were an East Kent regiment and so-called due to their one-time buff-coloured uniforms. The expression came from an order to keep discipline on the parade ground by an adjutant. Kipling used it in one of his stories.

One reply my grandfather would give if I asked him where he was going was to say he was going to see about 'a wigwam for a horse's bridle'. I have no idea what that means!

Reading the weather forecast with my grandson it said there could be the odd shower.
He wanted to know what an odd shower was, and why it was odd.

"Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs"
Why? would that help?

"Has the cat got your tongue?"

"He tried to butter me up"

and
"He's kicked the bucket"

When someone says, 'Bear with me,' I am always tempted to say, 'where?'

Suzy Dent from Countdown has published a number of books on the origins of words and sayings.
Our family saying is ' Steady the buffs'. ?

Our family saying was 'It's black over Bill's mother's' Never knew who she was either!

When it looked like rain and the sky was heavy with clouds , my friend would say " It's dark over Aunt Maud 's". Who was she ?

I've just thought of another odd saying: "She waited on him hand and foot". I've never heard it said starting with "He ..."

Just read this thread and read the definition in Urban Dictionary-well, better be careful where we say that then! Lol!

I like to think of a bear standing next to the person saying bear with me!

It is to do with the old practice of counting sheep with a stick (apparently). Presumably, if you had a very large flock, you often had more than you could "shake a stick at"! (Or you fell asleep before you had finished shaking your stick at them!). It is an expression I am apt to use on more than a few occasions but I have never wondered, until now, where it came from!

Oh heavens, I remember Sunday afternoon walks with my Grandparents, being told we were going to walk as far as the Green Dragon and then walk back (I was terrified, didn't know it was a pub!)

Even worse was the walk to the Wyche Cutting, which is a place in my beloved Malvern Hills, but I thought it was the "witch cutting" imagining some old crone with large scissors!

We seem to have wandered from "shaking a stick at"

I found the book but the saying wasn't there!!

We often couldn't go anywhere because my Nan had a bone in her leg!!

We got that one when I was little. Why was no-one ever prepared to say where they were really going? it was always"To see a man about a dog." "Back of Bill's mother's to see Mary" or "There and back etc"

We took the kids for a walk one sunny Sunday afternoon, to look at a pub we`d been told about that accepted children. When asked where we were going, we told them "there and back to see how far it is." When they went to school the following day, eldest son, aged 5, told the teacher they`d been out for a walk, when she asked where, he said "there and back to see how far it is!"

Oh I've definitely heard and used the 'stick' saying. My mother was full of odd sayings but they go out of your head when you try to think of them. She was fond of wanting 'to give me something to cry for' and to 'make me laugh on the other side of my face'. If I pulled a face undoubtedly 'the wind will change and you'll stay like that'.

If my father was asked by us where he was going it was always ' up Aldgate Pump to get a bike out' and my Aunties reply would be ' up arse****s corner to hear the band play' she was rather earthy but lovely.

Lots more!!!!

I'm with lucky but haven't looked at the modern meaning I used to here it when I was young and it seems to have reappeared lately.

Just remembered, DS1 bought me a book about the origin of sayings. I try to find it.

I've always thought it's origin was as Luckygirl described. I've certainly never thought of it having a 'saucy' meaning

I know Galen but it is the way it is said, and there's hardly a burden involved usually!