Old sayings that you heard in your childhood.

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I remember a woman with what were called "bandy legs" in the 1950s and comments being passed like "She couldn't stop a pig in a ginnel".

 

[Calthrop]

Something just come to mind, after a couple of weeks -- triggered by "Scrabble" doings: we had a mildly silly handed-down family thing, about pronounceable alphabetical order: which went "abbersee-deffigee-kellemen-opacue-rustuvee-doubleyou-ex-wy-zed". As a somewhat language-obsessed kid, I observed that the third element therein, omitted three letters; and could be easily amended to "hijklemen". My mother, who held family traditions in quasi-religious esteem, was adamant that: no, it was "kellemen" -- "end-of".

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Something just come to mind, after a couple of weeks -- triggered by "Scrabble" doings: we had a mildly silly handed-down family thing, about pronounceable alphabetical order: which went "abbersee-deffigee-kellemen-opacue-rustuvee-doubleyou-ex-wy-zed". As a somewhat language-obsessed kid, I observed that the third element therein, omitted three letters; and could be easily amended to "hijklemen". My mother, who held family traditions in quasi-religious esteem, was adamant that: no, it was "kellemen" -- "end-of".

Your mother was evidently Enid Blyton, and I now claim my £5.

 

[Calthrop]

Your mother was evidently Enid Blyton, and I now claim my £5.

My Mum had her failings -- but from all that I learn about Enid: a worse mother then her, would be hard to imagine .

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I must have been very young (circa 1950) when people used to say they were "stuck for bobbins". I never knew what that meant and seventy years later, I am still no wiser. Does anyone know what it means?

 

[Gloster]

I must have been very young (circa 1950) when people used to say they were "stuck for bobbins". I never knew what that meant and seventy years later, I am still no wiser. Does anyone know what it means?

A quick googling suggests that it is an old Lancashire expression. Bobbins are what the cotton came on in the mills, so if you had no bobbins, you had no cotton and could not do any work (or, probably, get any pay). Hence, it means ‘have nothing to do’. I am far from being a dialect specialist, but this seems logical: I hope it is not folk etymology.

 

[Whistler40145]

I must have been very young (circa 1950) when people used to say they were "stuck for bobbins". I never knew what that meant and seventy years later, I am still no wiser. Does anyone know what it means?

I think it means you're stuck for something to do

 

[Killingworth]

One I heard this week that I hadn't heard for a long time "if that's my lunch I've had it." Spoken by a native of Hull but used by my father in Newcastle, . Tea or dinner might get the same comment, meaning ready to move on..

 

[Bobdogs]

Sayings in use in Yorkshire in the 1950s-60s, included:-

"That's summat or nowt" meaning something insignificant [interestingly, Ian McMillan in his book about Yorkshire reverses it and calls it "Neither Nowt Nor Summat].
"All fizz and no pop" used of a showy, but unreliable person.
And, when in desperation at trying to tell someone they were wrong, we'd say "Nay, I've told and better told him"
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]

Going for a Burton goes back to the days of the Raj.
One of the breweries in Burton upon Trent (I cannot remember which one) brewed a light ale which could be shipped to the subcontinent and retain its quality. Hence the expression which was used in India and entered popular speech when ex-pats came home.

Living over the brush.
Unmarried couple living together.
Her at no5 is living over the brush with him from Unigate.

Or he came from the other side of the blanket.i.e illigitimate.

Honest injun. My mum would make me say that if she wrongly suspected me of lying.
Until about a year ago I thought it was a different single word honestingin.

Jobs a good un. Unfailing and annoying utterance by a work colleague when we had tipped the last bin at the end of the shift

 

[61653 HTAFC]

A quick googling suggests that it is an old Lancashire expression. Bobbins are what the cotton came on in the mills, so if you had no bobbins, you had no cotton and could not do any work (or, probably, get any pay). Hence, it means ‘have nothing to do’. I am far from being a dialect specialist, but this seems logical: I hope it is not folk etymology.

"Bobbins" is also an old slang term from the Heavy Woollen District of West Yorkshire: if something was described as "bobbins" it was either nonsense or of poor quality, depending on context. I now wonder if this came about as a jibe at the rival textile trade from over the hills...

 

[arbeia]

'Take your time, we'll all get a bun."

 

[The Albion]

"Love a duck". When surprised.

 

[Busaholic]

'' Good as gold'', used almost as one word. ''Oh,yes, the kids were good-as-gold'' etc. Refers to the old Gold Standard, I believe.

 

[THC]

When, as a child, I asked my father how to get anywhere he'd always reply, "turn left at Shepherd's Bush beach". Both my parents are from the west of Ireland so I presume he picked it up when he started with LT in the late 1960s.

THC

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

A saying heard in Miles Platting in the 1950s was "Don't forget to cover the coalhole" (that was the circular pavement hole with a cast iron circular lid with a metal chain attached that the coal delivery man tipped his coal delivery into the cellar)

 

[Mcr Warrior]

"Bobbins" is also an old slang term from the Heavy Woollen District of West Yorkshire: if something was described as "bobbins" it was either nonsense or of poor quality, depending on context. I now wonder if this came about as a jibe at the rival textile trade from over the hills...

Not sure if that was actually the case, but it does seem that the term "bobbins" (meaning something of little or no worth, deriving from spools in a cotton mill with no cotton thread left on them) has historical currency on both sides of the Pennines!

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Not sure if that was actually the case, but it does seem that the term "bobbins" (meaning something of little or no worth, deriving from spools in a cotton mill with no cotton thread left on them) has historical currency on both sides of the Pennines!

As a young child, I recall that any broken wooden bobbins were allowed to be taken home by the millworkers in the Ancoats area of Manchester and used for firewood as both paint and varnish were on them which made them burn easily.

I have just remembered that anyone who looked "in authority" in the local park were all called "parkies".

 

[swt_passenger]

If you don’t do <whatever> soon, they’ll be coming round to cut off your gas and water…

 

[philthetube]

As much use as a chocolate fireguard.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

As much use as a chocolate fireguard.

Or indeed as much use as a chocolate teapot!

 

[Calthrop]

"Love a duck". When surprised.

Coming in late here -- but I'd figured that this had long been a common and well-known one: indeed generally expressive of surprise / consternation -- big in Cockney-speak ("Lor luv-a-duck !"). Have heard it -- not in childhood ! -- in a more "robust" version: with first word of the three, not "love", but a well-known expletive which rhymes with "duck". One wonders whether the expression first arose in this pithy, rhyming form; and was later adapted to the "love" version, to make it fit for family, and general polite-society, use.

 

[Busaholic]

I have just remembered that anyone who looked "in authority" in the local park were all called "parkies".

That was true in S.E. London too: they were always dressed in brown, including their hats. Being the 1950s, hats were always worn. Women 'parkies' didn't exist, in that part of the country at least.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

In local areas where two captains of street teams playing football or cricket chose players for their teams, there was always one left over at the end who was called "Piffy on a rock bun" in the Miles Platting area of North Manchester.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

In local areas where two captains of street teams playing football or cricket chose players for their teams, there was always one left over at the end who was called "Piffy on a rock bun" in the Miles Platting area of North Manchester.

Meaning superfluous or left out.

Opinions seem to vary as regards who or what "piffy" was exactly.

A variation of the phrase sitting like "Patience on a monument", perhaps, which I believe is a Shakespearean quotation from "Twelfth Night", the 'Patience' referred to being a stone statue of a figure often to be found sat on top of / adorning a tombstone.

 

[PeterY]

My father often used to say "were you lot born in a barn?" to me and my siblings when we left doors open. Also "more lights than Blackpool illuminations" when we left the lights on.

 

[Mat17]

My grandfather always used to say, "stop acting goat", i.e. stop messing about.

Maybe it was just him, maybe it's a Yorkshire thing.

 

[birchesgreen]

My grandfather always used to say, "stop acting goat", i.e. stop messing about.

Maybe it was just him, maybe it's a Yorkshire thing.

Something Captain Haddock also said much to Calculus' annoyance.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

My grandfather always used to say, "stop acting goat", i.e. stop messing about.

Maybe it was just him, maybe it's a Yorkshire thing.

Think this saying is actually quite well known, more often as "Stop acting the goat" or even "Stop playing the giddy goat" or variations thereof.

 

[High Dyke]

If we were misbehaving my Granny would threaten to 'snicker-sneeze us'. Never did find out the origin of that phrase.

Others used were.
Up the wooden hill to bed.
You'll stop like it if the wind changes, if you pulled silly faces.

I still used "daft as a boiled owl."

 

[chorleyjeff]

I might be a tad older than most (but not all) on the website, so I wonder if "strange sayings" were common at one time.

One that springs to mind from the early 1950s was if two women were very annoyed and argumentative, the term used was " They are playing Hamlet".

"Preston " Down't suff " -- down the drain. I think a suff was a mine drain