But where do they all come from? Rat-arsed! Why???

Sue

Anna

Is you 'mad as a chair' a mis-prononciation or bastardisation of 'mad as a March hare'?

Sort of 'mad as a Mar ch-hare' - 'mad as a chair'?

Just a thought! I'll be off, then.

John

John, that would make sense- another gran-ism was to describe something as 'better than a slap in the face with a wet fish', or 'better than a poke in the eye with a burnt stick'. Sometimes these got mixed up. they always referred to something not being as bad as it could be.

My Granny used to say of women she disapproved of 'She's got a bike.' Meaning she was loose and could get about between villages to meet boys easily. Of drunk people she said 'they were three sheets in the wind.'
Becca.

Becca

The version of that I've heard is 'three sheets TO the wind,'
Perhap a nautical connection there, referring to sails?

It also reminds me of 'pissed as a newt'. But why a newt?

John

<Added>

And Becca, another variant on the 'bike' theme is 'she's the village/town/school bike'. But not because she does the riding, if you see what I mean!

Fell off the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down....

That's so cruel! Poor tree!

x

Some Nottingham slang/phrases, that can be quite terrifying to tourists and strangers. But to me, they all make perfect sense See if anyone can distiguish just what the meaning of some of these are:

"Aup miduck"
"Are yer gunner get rid of that rammell"
"Its black over Bills mothers"
"Wory wi yo or wory we issen"
"There wornt a skerrit left"
"Tiziky"
"Arkatit rainin"
"I wanna gerrit"
"Init luvly"
"Geower"
"Twitchal"
"Beeroff"
"Code init"
"Ayergorrawiya"
"Minger!" [A Nottingham original in slang terms]
"I were reet chuffed"
"Your talking Cobblers"
and my favourite, "Aslan"

Steven

"If I had a dog with a face like yours I'd shave it's arse and teach it to walk backwards."
That's not directed at anyone in particular, by the way.

And a variation on Sue's: "Face like a butt full of bee stings."

I'm starting to notice that all of these have come from my brother. Should I be getting a hint of something???

That's wonderful. Poor dog! I absolutely love that one!

Sue

I think that these sayings or phrases become well known through 'word of mouth'. One person hears it, likes a lot, repeats it to someone else, and so on and so forth until they almost become as part of the language and eventually even added to the Oxford Dictionary. Like the words 'bonk' or 'shag' - before they were bandied about the British Isles no American or European had a clue what they meant. It's the same with jokes I suppose, the good ones get repeated so many times that eventually you'll hear them - sometimes in the most unexpected places!

A bit of trivia - I think...

What is the origin of the word 'quiz'?

The story goes that a Dublin theatre proprietor by the name of Richard Daly made a bet that he could, within forty-eight hours, make a nonsense word known throughout the city, and that the public would give a meaning to it. After the performance one evening, he gave his staff cards with the word 'quiz' written on them, and told them to write the word on walls around the city. The next day the strange word was the talk of the town, and within a short time it had become part of the language. This picturesque tale appeared as an anecdote in 1836, but the most detailed account (in F. T. Porter's Gleanings and Reminiscences, 1875) gives the date of the exploit as 1791. The word, however, was already in use by then, meaning 'an odd or eccentric person', and had been used in this sense by Fanny Burney in her diary on 24 June 1782. 'Quiz' was also used as a name for a curious toy, something like a yo-yo and also called a bandalore, which was popular around 1790. The word is nevertheless hard to account for, and so is its later meaning of 'to question, to interrogate', which emerged in the mid-19th century and gave rise to the most common use of the term today, for an entertainment based on questions and answers.

I'm sure there's a site somewhere that gives the origins of phrases...I'll do a google sometime.

There's another word that'll probably be added to the dictionary...google - to search effectively on the internet.

Nahed

Wordy

Fell off the ugly tree ....

That's wonderful! Come to think of it, I know her!

Jumbox

Talking about me again, Jumbo?

ee
x

Not me, ma'am!

Now, about those photographs!

Ohhhh? Is that what the blinking red light in the corner is?


x

Yes. How many copies do you want?

Colour or black & white?