Daft sayings

Sorry if you felt put down by me, absent. I guess I was being too literal!!!!! It's so hard to know if something is meant to be light-hearted. That's why I like emoticons. A little does wonders. Glad to hear, on another thread, that you've had a nice time today.

Being pedantic, Greatnan but I think the figure of speech to which you refer ("She came in boots and a black cab") is hendiadys? (Crawls into corner.)

I quoted 'she came in triumph and a black cab' which is, I think, bathos. Definition - moving from higher things to the commonplace.

Bathos:
Here thou great Anna whom three realms obey
Dost sometimes counsel take, and sometimes tea. (Pope)

Zeugma:
She left in tears and a sedan chair.
(same verb and preposition, different objects)

Hello all, yes jane that is the word, and I did start a thread on them a while back.

Bags the only word that comes to mind re. word for wise people is "sage". It pops up from time to time in cryptic crosswords, but doesn't seem to be in common useage these days.

Or 'savant', which is even less common!

Perhaps wisdom is old-fashioned nowadays. I always thought that was the point of getting old - accumulating wisdom - though now that I'm there, I'm not so sure...

God shapes the back to fit the burden. There's a really specious saying.

I like the French for midwife - femme sage.

"I like the French for midwife - femme sage" - Yes... "wise woman" - it has a certain whiff of the village crone who just might - might, I say - have been thought a witch!

'Midwife' is more Teutonic - one who is 'with' (cf 'mit') the wife/woman.

I've just (belatedly) read all these posts and had a real laugh - all hail grans everywhere: we're a bright and brainy lot!
(So says the freelance proofreader who hadn't even heard of "Paraprosdokian"... hangs head in shame.)

My Nans favourite saying to us grubby grandkids was Soap and water costs nowt! Obviously before the advent of water rates and the recent cost of washing powder!

Some of the phrases usued in job descriptions really get my goat (and how did that phrase come about I wonder?)

Why must people be able to "hit the ground running"? why should all sales persons be "hungry" ?

And as for "tenacious, charismatic yet resilient" well, that just puts me in mind of a slightly aloof bull terrier.

phoenix This is one explanation, although how true it is is anybody's guess. American racehorse trainers used to put a goat in the stall as a companion to a nervous horse. If someone took the goat away, the horse became upset and would run badly. Presumably the kidnapper (ho ho) had a bet on another horse.

Jane was it "bathos"?

Bags "sage"? (wise person)

Can't keep up today - I am, to quote my Nan, like an old hen scratching for daylight.

Can I add a few daft sayings that might be pure Yorkshire?

When she was surprised, my grandma used to say (in her Holmfirth accent), "Eeh, I'll go teh' foot of our stairs!", or "Eeh, I'll go to our house!"

And if I did something either amusing (I think!) or slightly strange, she would say, "Eeh, you're a cough drop!".

They all bring back memories for me Mamacaz and were common in the west riding when I was growing up.

The new saying which has me a bit stumped as to origin in 'mad as a box of frogs'. Will google it

And if you are interested the great voice of Googly wisdom saidThe origins of this phrase are very simple...

One fine morning, a gentleman called Bartholomew woke to the sound of Autumn.

He went down to his fishing pond to collect breakfast, Rainbow Trout none the less.

Upon his arrival he was greeted with a most sinister occurance...he could identify not a fish in sight! More to his amazement was the sheer volume of Frog spawn.

To cut a long story short, the spawn produced a phalanx of Frogs. To liberate his beloved Rainbow Trout from the scourge of the Frog, he acquired many boxes. In these boxes, he carefully gathered up all the Frogs he could find and firmly closed the lid. In a frenzy of panic, the now captured amphibious creatures leapt within their recycled prison cells in a feeble attempt to escape.

So there you have it, put a some frogs in a box and they'll go mad.

Mad as a box of frogs.:
Not very exciting really!!!!