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Old sayings that you heard in your childhood.

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prod_pep

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'Harping on' is still in common usage: I often hear it and use it myself occasionally, interchangeable with 'rabbiting on', 'waffling on' and others.

My late grandma liked her minced oaths and euphemisms, including 'by Jove', 'Gordon Bennett', 'good grief' and 'daft ha'p'orth'. My grandad still says 'I'm going to pay a call' as a euphemism for going to the toilet.
 
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Bedpan

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My Mum used to say "Dash" , as in a ---- replacing a swear wird, when I was little. Then there was "Spend a penny" after the 1d coin slot on the doors of public toilets, and "The penny house".
 

SteveM70

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In my original neck of the woods of the West Midlands, I have heard the phrase "gone round the Wrekin" as meaning to have took the long way round to get somewhere, rather than via the shortest route.

The Wrekin being a range of hills and twisty roads in Shropshire.

My mum still says that. Never lived anywhere near Shropshire though
 

Jaz avalley

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Away and boil yer head - I’ve heard that version
duck and peas, duck in and out again - when there was little choice in the food cupboard
stop hogging the bowl - when someone was waiting to use the toilet
get cracking, for get a move on,hurry up
put wood in hole,for shut the door
 

Galvanize

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From my Grandparents…
Granddad would address a Cat by saying
“How’s the cat? How’s your paws and claws?”

When we couldn’t remember what day it was during the School Holidays…
“What day is it tomorrow Granddad?”
“It’s…Friday and it’s Friday ALL day tomorrow!”

Grandmother or “Granny” as we knew her would say to confirm something
“That’s the ticket.”

When looking for the Television Remote Control
“You seen the Zapper anywhere?”
 

Trackman

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A phrase I often heard said years ago when I was little (usually applied when someone was embarking on something deemed to be a bad idea) was: “he must want his head reading”.
I wonder if this is the same as 'he needs his bumps feeling' .. must be.
another:
'Don't cross your eyes, if the wind changes they will stay the same'
 

87 027

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My grandma used to call someone who couldn’t get to the point while speaking “going round and round the gasworks.” I was reminded by hearing the phrase used just now on TV in Call The Midwife, which is set in the 1950s/1960s
 

Strathclyder

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And one my father used of something that was broken was "it's gone for a Burton" [Something, I think, to do with Burton's tailoring and wooden overcoats - possibly of an RAF origin]
'Harping on' is still in common usage: I often hear it and use it myself occasionally, interchangeable with 'rabbiting on', 'waffling on' and others.

My late grandma liked her minced oaths and euphemisms, including 'by Jove', 'Gordon Bennett', 'good grief' and 'daft ha'p'orth'. My grandad still says 'I'm going to pay a call' as a euphemism for going to the toilet.
I find myself using these fairly often; can't be many 25 year olds in Western Scotland who do! Perhaps my watching Steptoe & Son a lot when I was younger has something to do with it.
 
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Killingworth

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Did you pull the chain? Flush the toilet.

Get him on the blower/give him a ring. Call him on telephone.

A load of old flannel. Talking rubbish.

Not worth the candle. A waste of time.
 

John Webb

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I vaguely recollect that if I asked my father what something was that he was working on, but he for some reason didn't what to explain, would talk of making "A whim-wham for a wowser" - or was it "Wig-wam for a wowser"?
 

Busaholic

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One I used to hear certain women say (never heard a man utter it) - ''FUR COAT AND NO KNICKERS''. i never quite understood what they were getting at, but I sensed disapproval, possibly jealousy, of another woman :)
 

Gloster

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A similar one from one of my mother’s friends, “I bet she never worked on her feet,” (or variants of it), usually about some female celebrity.
 

GusB

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One I used to hear certain women say (never heard a man utter it) - ''FUR COAT AND NO KNICKERS''. i never quite understood what they were getting at, but I sensed disapproval, possibly jealousy, of another woman :)
A' fur coat an nae drawers!

I first heard that from the lady* who moved in next door to us when I was in my mid-teens. I'm not entirely sure what it means, but I think it refers to someone who appears outwardly to be of a different class, but is no better than the rest of us.

* I use the description very loosely because once the brandy had kicked in she was very un-ladylike!
 

Busaholic

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“Were you born in a field?”, if you didn’t shut the door.
An acquaintance of mine ran what could loosely be described as an antiques shop, door firmly closed, but if someone exited the shop and left the door open they heard this refrain in their ears :''born in a barn?''. If they'd just spent serious money, it was uttered sotta voce but it was always uttered.
 

STEVIEBOY1

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One I used to hear certain women say (never heard a man utter it) - ''FUR COAT AND NO KNICKERS''. i never quite understood what they were getting at, but I sensed disapproval, possibly jealousy, of another woman :)
Yes, that is a good one.

As mentioned above, the term "Duck" seems to have originated in Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire. "Queen" I think is or was, used in the Liverpool area and "Pet" from the Newcastle area. "My Lover" is or was, used also in Devon & maybe Cornwall. I think these phrases are good.
 

Altrincham

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I wonder if this is the same as 'he needs his bumps feeling' .. must be.
another:
'Don't cross your eyes, if the wind changes they will stay the same'
Yes, I think you’re right there - “needs his head reading” and “needs his bumps feeling”

...to describe incredulity at someone about to embark on something not in-keeping with the norm.
 

Calthrop

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One I used to hear certain women say (never heard a man utter it) - ''FUR COAT AND NO KNICKERS''. i never quite understood what they were getting at, but I sensed disapproval, possibly jealousy, of another woman :)
A' fur coat an nae drawers!

I first heard that from the lady* who moved in next door to us when I was in my mid-teens. I'm not entirely sure what it means, but I think it refers to someone who appears outwardly to be of a different class, but is no better than the rest of us.

* I use the description very loosely because once the brandy had kicked in she was very un-ladylike!

This saying's general "drift" -- to my mind, rather as per @GusB 's view above; plus suggestion of impressive, maybe rather gaudy, "show", concealing a shaky and shoddy reality. In Matthew Engel's mostly excellent book Eleven Minutes Late -- a "potted" and digestible social history of Britain's railways from inception to present day, directed at the interested lay person rather than the erudite railway-nerd -- Fur Coat, No Knickers (which he calls "an old Lancastrianism") is his heading for the chapter on the Grouping era. He regards that two-and-a-half decades as essentially a bad time for the country's railways: some flashy, publicity-attracting achievements; but underneath, fairly awful financial difficulties / a high and increasing degree of road competition / acute labour problems / very many lesser services of all companies, being of decidedly low quality.
 
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Killingworth

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All mouth and no trousers.

Push button A shouted into the phone. When you received a call from a call box and the caller hadn't pressed tha A button to start the call. Pressing button B got your money back. (Call home, let it ring 3 times, hang up, and it cost nowt to let family know you were on your way.)

I'm tempted to shout press button A when on the receiving end of silent calls!
 

Busaholic

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Yes, that is a good one.

As mentioned above, the term "Duck" seems to have originated in Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire. "Queen" I think is or was, used in the Liverpool area and "Pet" from the Newcastle area. "My Lover" is or was, used also in Devon & maybe Cornwall. I think these phrases are good.
I've never heard 'my lover' in my neck of Cornwall; my first time of being addressed thus was in Minehead, Somerset, in 1966 when I was doing a holiday job a long way from the S.E. London world I inhabited, and an old guy who always appeared to be at a fancy dress party dressed as the most over-the-top yokel of anyone's dreams/nightmares (sometimes with straw in his mouth, honestly!) started up a conversation with those words. If I said I was taken aback, that might give the wrong impression, but I soon realised I needn't have worried on that score. :D

'Darling' is very common here to old men like me from females of all ages, and I confess to being secretly pleased to be so addressed: I've even responded with the same word for the first time in my life (to a stranger.) As many of these women have been nurses and other NHS staff, I've found that the ones who use the word are more sympathetic and/or patient on average.
 
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Gloster

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Thirty years ago in East Somerset ‘My dear’ was quite common, even between men. However, between men the speaker would tend to be middle-aged or older.
 

Calthrop

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All mouth and no trousers.

I've heard said -- in the London area, to the best of my remembrance -- just "All mouth and trousers" -- obviously the same meaning: "All show and no substance; getting by on gab". In this one, plainly the "no trousers" version is the one that makes sense -- but colloquialisms are often about being vivid, rather than making strict grammatical or logical sense -- one picks up the meaning from the context. As with the endless debate about "I couldn't care less" versus "I could care less": the former more obviously makes sense; but the latter can be seen to have a super-contemptuous "bite" to it, which the more genteel "couldn't" version lacks. The force and meaning, are clear -- logic be damned !

Off-topic re Britons and their childhoods; but I've always liked the Texan mouth / trousers equivalent: "All hat and no cattle".
 

prod_pep

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My grandad, on seeing a scruffy, long-haired man: "He looks like the Wild Man of Borneo."
 

Calthrop

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My grandad, on seeing a scruffy, long-haired man: "He looks like the Wild Man of Borneo."

Or as a work colleague of mine put it, long ago, "...of Bonio". Seems she was a bit "challenged" in the matter of South-East-Asian geography, vis-a-vis dog treats...
 

Gloster

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A bit like my grandmother who, when criticising communist regimes, always used to mention Andorra. She was quite certain that it was a hardline, China-supporting state ruled by Enver Hoxha.
 
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