My mother was ill before Xmas and she tells me that ever since she's "been feelin' like a hauf-shut knife".
― Narayan Superman (Tom D.), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 12:40 (eight years ago) link
a face like a well-skelped arse
― ilxors ananimus (onimo), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 22:21 (eight years ago) link
these are still well in use, well they were when I last resided in the dear green place :(
my grandfather had a strange catalogue of well-worn phrases that tbh ive never heard anyone say so either very archaic and just a bit pish patter so didn't endure (quite likely) or just some idiosyncratic phrases he liked to hit out wi':
half the lies are never truewhen youre right rich you can shop in Buchanan streettony galenti (rhyming slang for plenty)toffs are careless that was rotten (invariably said immediately after finishing a particularly good meal)
― Cuombas (jim in glasgow), Tuesday, 12 January 2016 23:11 (eight years ago) link
My sister has just mentioned this one, I don't remember it but then I'm the wrong gender:
Granny Grey Hips - someone behaving older than they are.
― Aw naw, no' Annoni oan an' aw noo (Tom D.), Wednesday, 3 August 2016 10:13 (eight years ago) link
Squeegee (sp?) - crooked, awry
e.g., "Ye'll huv tae hing that paintin' up again, it's aw' squeegee".
― Aw naw, no' Annoni oan an' aw noo (Tom D.), Wednesday, 3 August 2016 13:13 (eight years ago) link
Also, I noticed when I was up last week, when my mum was trying to get an electrician and I had to talk to them on the phone because she's pretty corned beef these days, that people in Scotland still pronounce the letter J as jy.
― Aw naw, no' Annoni oan an' aw noo (Tom D.), Wednesday, 3 August 2016 13:18 (eight years ago) link
My Dad used to tell my sister and I to 'stop your greeting' if we were moaning and/or crying. I think this is a Scots thing.
― TARANTINO! (dog latin), Wednesday, 3 August 2016 13:45 (eight years ago) link
Was probably fed up with having to deal with pair o' greetin'-faced weans.
― Aw naw, no' Annoni oan an' aw noo (Tom D.), Wednesday, 3 August 2016 13:50 (eight years ago) link
my mum and her family and my grandma had a bunch of weird phrases.
"cat's malak" to mean like a horrible mix of something, like eg if you put too much ketchup on your dinner. i thought this was common irish slang but friends don't seem to verify that.
"dol-di-dee" to mean rubbish or something that isn't true. feel like this is more common, in ireland, but dunno.
my dad's main thing he used to say was "DICK MACKESSY WOULDN'T DO THAT" in outraged anger if you did something stupid. when asked about dick mackessy he'd just explain he was like the village fool - "the mackessys were all eejits" but with no real deeper detail than that. i like to imagine dick turning in his grave.
― Bein' Sean Bean (LocalGarda), Wednesday, 3 August 2016 13:52 (eight years ago) link
I'm not quite sure how to spell this phonetically, but my grandmother used to call the cupboard under the stairs the "kutch" (to rhyme with 'butch')-- C J (CJ_The_Unrul...), November 28th, 2005 1:24 PM. (later)i wonder if that's a variation on "hutch." (xxpost) -- athol fugard (theundergroundhom...), November 28th, 2005 1:28 PM. (later) iirc this is a welsh thing... i can't figure out how to spell it (cwtsi? doesn't look right!) ("si" makes a "sh" or "zh" sound) but as well as cupboard-under-stairs - or any little hidey-hole really - it means a quick cuddle, a little hug. i only remember because someone told me about people being beaten at school for using the word when the english were trying to suppress the welsh (haha, "were"). ― emsk ( emsk), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 12:43 (10 years ago)
-- C J (CJ_The_Unrul...), November 28th, 2005 1:24 PM. (later)
i wonder if that's a variation on "hutch." (xxpost)
-- athol fugard (theundergroundhom...), November 28th, 2005 1:28 PM. (later)
iirc this is a welsh thing... i can't figure out how to spell it (cwtsi? doesn't look right!) ("si" makes a "sh" or "zh" sound) but as well as cupboard-under-stairs - or any little hidey-hole really - it means a quick cuddle, a little hug. i only remember because someone told me about people being beaten at school for using the word when the english were trying to suppress the welsh (haha, "were").
― emsk ( emsk), Tuesday, 29 November 2005 12:43 (10 years ago)
10 years later, and living on the English/Welsh border, I can confirm emsk is correct only it's spelled cwtch. Most people seem to use it in the sense of when they're under the weather and just want to lie on the sofa in a blanket. "I'm all cwtched up."
Also:
http://media.alesbymail.co.uk/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/t/i/tiny-rebel---cwtch_2.jpg
I'm not quite sure how to spell this phonetically, but my grandmother used to call the cupboard under the stairs the "kutch" (to rhyme with 'butch') "Cooch"????― Dan (Where You Stick The Cucumbers) Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 28 November 2005 17:14 (10 years ago)
― Dan (Where You Stick The Cucumbers) Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 28 November 2005 17:14 (10 years ago)
DJP should totally come over here and drink some cooch with me.
― Horizontal Superman is invulnerable (aldo), Wednesday, 3 August 2016 14:03 (eight years ago) link
footery wee hings
― get outta the way! here comes (onimo), Friday, 5 August 2016 00:22 (eight years ago) link
"You'll have to use Shanks's pony."
― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Thursday, 29 December 2016 20:44 (seven years ago) link
'He dies in this"
― Mark G, Thursday, 29 December 2016 22:42 (seven years ago) link
Be back in a minute, just got to ben the other room.
― Eats like Elvis, shits like De Niro (Tom D.), Thursday, 29 December 2016 22:50 (seven years ago) link
oops
Be back in a minute, just got to go ben the other room.
not really an interesting colloquialism or anything, but when my gran first met my auntie's 2nd husband she whispered to my mum "She better get him insured, he'll be in the ground before me".
He was known as "Yellow Eddie" because he worked at LB Dyes for 30 years and must have been getting all the worst jobs because he literally was yellow and looked quite cadaverous in the best of health. He only died this year funnily enough, beating my gran by 18 years.
― calzino, Thursday, 29 December 2016 23:07 (seven years ago) link
Today I sent Dan a photo of a 30ft cwtch.
― Thomas Gabriel Fischer does not endorse (aldo), Friday, 7 July 2017 23:50 (seven years ago) link
My grandmother on my mother's side said strange things that never made sense to me. She came from a weird, desiccated Dutch old money family. She told me a story of how her three great aunts were draped in robes and watched her when she was sent off overseas or some bullshit like that.
What the hell is that? I still don't know what the fuck that is. I'll take this folksy crap in a heartbeat.
― jenkem street team (carpet_kaiser), Saturday, 8 July 2017 01:03 (seven years ago) link
My granny always called my grandfather (named William, Bill to friends) Wal, rhyming with pal.
― -_- (jim in vancouver), Saturday, 8 July 2017 01:19 (seven years ago) link
From out of nowhere, I remembered a word my dad was fond of using, dighted, which means daft, stupid or crazy. I assume it's from the verb, to dight, which means, among other things, to wipe clean.
― Kanye O'er Frae France? (Tom D.), Wednesday, 16 May 2018 15:49 (six years ago) link
Whenever she would arrive home from somewhere, my grandmother would say "Home again, home again, jiggity jig."
I don't say it out loud, but to this day it runs through my head quite often.
― Hideous Lump, Thursday, 17 May 2018 04:06 (six years ago) link
Menage (pronounced 'menodge')
http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/menage
― Zach Same (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 October 2018 08:16 (five years ago) link
It's a line from an old nursery rhyme "To market, to market"
― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Thursday, 11 October 2018 08:28 (five years ago) link
(xp) Apparently from the French, manège, the profitable employment of money.
― Zach Same (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 October 2018 14:47 (five years ago) link
You may be confusing 'manège' (amusement ride, riding hall, crafty behaviour, etc.) and 'ménage' (housekeeping, relationship).
― pomenitul, Thursday, 11 October 2018 14:54 (five years ago) link
Yes, I was going by what they said on the site I linked to.
― Zach Same (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 October 2018 14:56 (five years ago) link
Interesting. The confusion is likely due to the word's phonetic and semantic similarity with 'management'.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 11 October 2018 15:04 (five years ago) link
Apparently still in use too:
Nowadays this word survives as an observation on how incompetent people or governments manage their affairs as in the following from the Herald of 12th September 2017: “We Scots had lacked confidence in the ability of our leaders and institutions to run a menodge.” This use is further illustrated, again from the Herald in the letters page of 12th November 2015: “As we say in the west of Scotland, could this lot manage a menodge.”
Manage a menodge, nice phrase.
― Zach Same (Tom D.), Thursday, 11 October 2018 15:17 (five years ago) link
Heh, that's awesome. It kind of makes sense too, since 'manage' and 'ménage' ultimately stem from two separate Latin roots: manus (the hand) and maneo (to stay, to dwell), respectively. So to manage a menodge is in some sense to handle a dwelling.
― pomenitul, Thursday, 11 October 2018 15:27 (five years ago) link
Not my granny but my mum, but she probably got it from her granny:
Sleeping your head into train oil or, as my mum would say, "Ye'll sleep yer heid intae train oil".
This one really used to confuse me because, in Scots, oil is pronounced like 'isle', so I had no idea where this place Train Isle was or how you could sleep yourself into it.
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Thursday, 30 April 2020 23:04 (four years ago) link
And even when I'd figured out it was 'oil' and not 'isle', I was still none the wiser, I mean what is train oil? Oil for lubricating trains? And, again, how do you sleep yourself into it? But, it turns out that train oil is whale oil - which your brain will turn into if you sleep too long.
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Thursday, 30 April 2020 23:13 (four years ago) link
My dad used that one a lot but it was more like "listening to that'll turn your brain to train oil", or "your brain'll turn to train oil if you keep on watching that". He would have been talking about stuff like the Boomtown Rats and Rentaghost so probably OTM.
― everything, Friday, 1 May 2020 00:48 (four years ago) link
'train oil' was most likely in the form of a greasy sludge
― A is for (Aimless), Friday, 1 May 2020 03:04 (four years ago) link
I thought it was 'dod' but apparently it's 'daud'.
https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/daud
... as in "Gie's a daud o' that bread".
Not really grannyspeak because I say it myself, but only in my head, as no-one else would know what I was talking about.
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Friday, 1 May 2020 13:42 (four years ago) link
"Gie's a daud o' that bread"
iirc one of the Apostles says that in Billy Connolly's 'Crucifixion' routine
― Non, je ned raggette rien (onimo), Saturday, 2 May 2020 09:33 (four years ago) link
LOL that must have been deep in the memory banks somewhere.
― The Corbynite Maneuver (Tom D.), Saturday, 2 May 2020 10:24 (four years ago) link
Sclaff
As in, thank you BBC Scotland for allowing the nation to once again relive Billy Bremner sclaffing that ball wide of the post against the worst Brazil team in history in the '74 World Cup.
― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Monday, 18 May 2020 13:17 (four years ago) link
My mom's golf group was called the Sclaffers.
― brownie, Monday, 18 May 2020 13:48 (four years ago) link
had no idea it was an actual word that other people used!
― brownie, Monday, 18 May 2020 13:52 (four years ago) link
Yes, it's used a lot in golf!
― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Monday, 18 May 2020 13:55 (four years ago) link
Along with skite.
I sclaffed my shot and it skited off a tree
― BRAVE THE AFRIAD (onimo), Thursday, 21 May 2020 20:48 (four years ago) link
and skliff
I sclaffed my shot and it skited off a tree so I skliffed off to find the ball
― conrad, Thursday, 21 May 2020 21:18 (four years ago) link
I think that just means a segment of an orange where I'm from.
― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Thursday, 21 May 2020 21:23 (four years ago) link
I use sclaff. I have not heard skite or skliff. But I have used skiff - to very barely hit something. Usually in Subbuteo or pool. "That's two shots." "Naw, I skiffed it."
― Eyeball Kicks, Saturday, 23 May 2020 23:32 (four years ago) link
Oh yeah, skiff is another one. Surprised you haven't heard skite, it's quite a common one.
― Is Lou Reed a Good Singer? (Tom D.), Saturday, 23 May 2020 23:42 (four years ago) link
Michael Rosen’s Twitter feed has an absolute treasure trove of these that he either retweeted right before going into hospital or someone in his family RTed for him
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 23 May 2020 23:53 (four years ago) link
i.e.
"I'm standing 'ere like cheese at fourpence......."— David Setchell (@DGSetchell) March 27, 2020
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Saturday, 23 May 2020 23:56 (four years ago) link
Puggled = exhausted, spent, on your last legs.
"Huv seen the state o' yon Boris Johnson? Looks puggled tae me".
― Captain Beeftweet (Tom D.), Friday, 5 June 2020 12:42 (four years ago) link
Switch = to beat (eggs) or mix.
"Gie's that egg and ah'll switch it up in a cup fer ye."
― Future England Captain (Tom D.), Wednesday, 1 July 2020 15:11 (four years ago) link
Clap = to pat affectionately, caressingly, approvingly.
"Ye can gie the dug a clap, he'll no' bite ye."
― "Bobby Gillespie" (ft. Heroin) (Tom D.), Wednesday, 18 August 2021 22:40 (three years ago) link