Strange Sayings

[sweetrsue]

Maybe I have a weird family but there have been sayings I've heard from them all my life that strike me strange. For example my Grandmother used to say "Cheap at half the price" Doesn't that mean it costs twice what it should? I once heard my Mother say about a pair of pants she tried on "I wouldn't wear this to a dog fight" anybody else heard funny sayings like that from their families or friends?

[xxxSpikexxx]

I hate when my Dad says that person has more shoes (or more of any other different thing) than quakers has oats. It just bugs me when he says that.

[MomoandMillie]

I have one or two.........

It will all come out in the wash! (meaning the truth will come out in the end)
It's all gone dark over Bill's mothers' (meaning it's gone very cloudy)
Bugger that for a lark! (meaning forget it, it's too much trouble)
It's a doddle ( meaning it's very easy to do)

I have hundreds but not sure if they already crossed the oceans or not?
:)

[sweetrsue]

I find language very interesting and have a couple of books about the origins of sayings. I discovered that "Don't buy a pig in a poke" and "The cats out of the bag" are sayings that are related! In old times people would come to market to buy their goods. Often people would sell suckling pigs in a burlap sack called a poke. An unscrupulous vendor would try to pull the wool over your eyes and would put a cat in the bag and sell it as a pig. So "letting the cat out of the bag" (as in to reveal something unknown and usually unpleasant) is directly related to "Don't buy a pig in a poke"!

[MomoandMillie]

I was trying to think of sayings that were specific to my area in the UK, it is difficult to know how far and wide some travel? I come from a very industrial area and we have a very thick dialect and accent. I can try to explain with this local saying we have but you may get very lost in understanding it LOL

Cos keek a bow
ageenst a wo
ed eet back, an bost eet?

Now if you were to pronounce it as it is written you would sound like me but you wouldn't have a bloomin clue what you'd just said! (Don't worry, it's not rude)

Answers on a postcard please LOL :wacko:

[sweetrsue]

You're right! I don't have a bloomin' clue.

[Finnatic]

My family didn't come up with it but "Age before beauty" reallly confuses me!!

And sweetrsue, I love that quote in your signature. It is beautiful!

[MomoandMillie]

Cos keek a bow
ageenst a wo
ed eet back, an bost eet?

This is an age old saying in my town, not sure who invented it but I think it is meant to ask if you are tough, hard, strong etc.

Translation.......

Can you kick a ball,
against the wall,
Head it back, and burst it?

More sayings.......

Too many cooks spoil the broth (too many people taking charge)
A storm in a teacup (A whole fuss for nothing)
Seven sheets to the wind (drunk)
A sandwich short of a picnic (not quite right in the head)
Too many chiefs and not enough Indians (too many people taking charge)
Common as Muck (Probably meaning the same as people referred to as trailer trash?)
All fur coat and no knickers (Someone pretending to be rich)
All around the Wrekin (To go the long round way about something)
As red as a Baboons bottom (to be embarrassed)
Built like a brick out house (big and strong)

:)

[Solace.]

Make yourself at home! Clean my kitchen.

[Terri Peters]

My family is Irish so you can imagine some of the things I heard growing up...LOL My favorite always came from my Grandpa, and usually after I had done something bad or being just a bit out of hand, he would say..."I hope you are in Heaven 10 minutes before the Devil knows your dead."

Or if he were to see a rather large woman, "That's a fine doorful of a woman." Ask him what he has been up too, "I'm busier than a one legged man at a butt kicking contest"

Then he would talk of his neighbor who was very frugal of his money.. "That man is so tight he could swallow a lump of coal and crap a diamond!"

...and my favorite, always said to ME... "Your so stubborn if your head itched you would scratch your butt!"

When we were together for dinner he would always say this toast... "May the roof above you never fall in, And those gathered beneath it never fall out."

It was never boring when my grandpa was around :D

[MomoandMillie]

:cool: Those ones tickled me, you've got to love the Irish, best sense of humour in the world. :D

[Terri Peters]

:cool: Those ones tickled me, you've got to love the Irish, best sense of humour in the world. :D

Thank you, but sometimes our mouths can get us into a lot of trouble...LOL

[MomoandMillie]

Our youngest daughter got caught up in this thread and has provided me with a few more...

As thick as two short planks (not very clever)
Like a bull in a china shop (very clumsy)
Daft as a brush (very silly)
Butter fingers (To drop something)
You're driving me up the wall (driving me mad)
As dead as a door nail (dead or broken)
Don't pee on my shoes and tell me it's raining (don't lie)
It's like flogging a dead horse (why bother, there's no point)
Look with your eyes, not your fingers (don't touch)
I have a mouth like Gandhi's flip flops (very dry mouth)
As useful as a chocolate fire guard ( not practical)
As rare as hens teeth (rare)
As rare as rocking horse poop (also rare)

[atvchick95]

I was surprised to see "built like a brick *out house* Only we say the Cuss word lol

a few fries short of a happy meal (not very smart)

Dumber then a box of Rocks (same as above)

A watched Pot never boils ( be patient) and I've actually tried this method and it's proven true so far if i stand over the pot it seems to never boil But if i walk away for even 5 mins its usually over boiling :P

So i have learned to be a bit more patient doens't always work though lol

These ones aren't saying just words i find funny

Poke = Sack/Bag - my mom is from West Virgina and when she was growing up they called Sacks/bags Pokes

Boot = Trunk of a car - the 1st time my friend told me to go to go get something out of the boot of her car i stood there stupefied i had no idea what she was talking about and I grew up in a garage i know cars! and sad thing is she was born and raised in Ohio Just like me lol

[MomoandMillie]

Boot/Trunk
Bonnet/Hood

actually very English.......And I did tone down the swear words LOL :p

[Birdlette]

I live in the South (of the USA) and we have our share of sayings too...Firstly we really do say "ya'll" in Tennessee, although up near the Kentucky border it becomes "you'uns". If I wanted to included everybody I would "all ya'll". If I were to point out something to you some distance away I might say its "over yonder". If I wanted to tell you I was preparing to do something I would tell you I was "fixin' to". Or I might say I was "fitten to" do whatever. If I wanted to tell you it was going to rain I might say it was coming a storm or coming up a cloud. If you looked unwell I might tell you that you looked "like death eatin' a cracker". Even from a young age I would always address you as m'am or sir when replying to you... If you came into a store the clerk would say, "Kin ah hep you ma'm?" No matter how old a man is he may still be referred to as a boy, as in, "Wal, I knowed this ol'boy from down in McMinnville" (pronounced MAC-minville... Accents are always on an unexpected sylable, right or wrong. You ought to hear how we pronouce Lafayette...La-FAY-ette!). The southern accent differs depending on whether you are from New Orleans, Savannah or Nashville. There isn't just one generic accent and every region has its own set of sayings and dialect.

[birdieness]

Us Newfies have quite the few but i can't think of many off hand but heres a few
- "yes b'y" We adds the B'y into a lot of things but it seems you get a more newfie accent on the go round the bay. The Townies have lost it haha.
- "Hows it cuttin" Meaning hows it going, can be remarked with Cuttin like a spoon =P

Don't know any more off hand really.

[Cannuck2007]

My Gramma used to always say "I've got to pee so bad my back teeth are using my toungue as a diving board". Grampa's favorite line was used in reference to someone's bragging "Well pin a rose on your ars!". He also used to say of all my boyfriends, "He's got a face like a can of worms!"
They were sarcastic but lovable!

[sweetrsue]

Your Grandpa sounds great! It reminded me of another saying I know that sounds as if it could have been one of his. "As nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs"

[sweetrsue]

When my Dad gets real hungry he says "My stomach thinks my throat's been cut"

[Cannuck2007]

Your Grandpa sounds great! It reminded me of another saying I know that sounds as if it could have been one of his. "As nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs"

I like that one! Lol!

I wish I could remember some of my great great aunt's sayings. She is a very abrasive and opinionated women who we adore. She lived through the depression era and was "Miss London" just before she got married. She had a oneliner for everything!:blink:

[sweetrsue]

My Grandma was that way. She was a stickler for grammar. If you didn't say things just right she let you know. But she was a bawdy Broad and proud of it. She said some things that I never understood. She hated it when you used she to indicate a person rather than using their name. She would say "Who's she?" , "The old cow who went under the fence?". Now what the heck is that suppose to mean?

[MomoandMillie]

My Grandma was that way. She was a stickler for grammar. If you didn't say things just right she let you know. But she was a bawdy Broad and proud of it. She said some things that I never understood. She hated it when you used she to indicate a person rather than using their name. She would say "Who's she?" , "The old cow who went under the fence?". Now what the heck is that suppose to mean?

I like that one........here we say "who's she?" , She's the cat's mother) :)

[Danielle]

I like that signature too. I saw an episode of House a while ago where that was quoted.

Irish sayings are fantastic. My biological family are all northern Irish and ulster Scotts, and they have a few funny sayings. I didn't grow up with them, although I know them now.

[sweetrsue]

Yes Rouille! That's where I got the saying from!

[Danielle]

I always wondered if that's where you got it from! Now I know (:

[Terri Peters]

Your Grandpa sounds great! It reminded me of another saying I know that sounds as if it could have been one of his. "As nervous as a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs"

HA! I love this saying!

My private violin instructor once used that one on me. I was performing V.Monti: Czardas. I had practiced until I knew the entire piece by heart and couldn't wait for my instructor to hear what I had accomplished. Once I finished the piece I looked over at him and he SNORTED.. yes.. snorted then said..."That sounded like a long tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs" then he told me to do it again and not try to kill him in the process. At first I do believe I was madder than I had ever been in my life, but while driving home I got the biggest laugh out of what he said.

However, making me just THAT mad was what put the real feeling into the piece and I nailed it the second time. He said..."Now that was better, it should be played like your trying to saw my head off." I later used that piece as my audition for the Danville Symphony and I played it like it was my lifes goal to prove my instructor wrong...LOL

[sweetrsue]

That is a cool story Terri!