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Words/phrases you use but don't always know how they came about.

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  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    What about ‘bullying off’ in hockey?

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • KT53KT53 Posts: 9,016
    My Mum used to refer to posh areas as 'the 5 bob side of town/the street'.  She said it was one of my Gran's sayings and she didn't discover the actual meaning of the term until she was well into adulthood.  She had always thought it simply meant the rich areas, which it did, but apparently originated from the price of female company.
    I don't know if the expression is/was peculiar to the Edinburgh area.
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Spectacular and instant success " Go off like a 30 Bob rocket.

    One I particularly like but can't find the etymology is: "She / he exited in a vehicle commonly known as a high dudgeon" I have paraphrased because I don't know the exact words . I assume it's a play on a  high phaeton..
    I think it might have been Flann O'Brien writing  as Myles na gCopaleen but I don't know.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Here you go @B3 - https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2011/07/dudgeon.html#:~:text=The first OED example of,folks together by the ears.” 

    Shakespeare's in there so a bit before phaetons.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Thank you @Obelixx but it was the play on words that amused me. I imagine Lady Bracknell exiting thus. High dudgeon/ high phaeton
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 30,090
    Love a play on words @B3 but I can't imagine Lady Bracknell in anything as racy as a phaeton.
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
    Plato
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    But a high dudgeon? Definitely.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • LunarSeaLunarSea Posts: 1,923
    A northern expression - "Well I'll go to't foot of our stairs" - indicating that you've been surprised by something.
    Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. 

    I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
  • BenCottoBenCotto Posts: 4,718
    A friend of mine, describing someone who is a bit full of themselves, avers that they think they can shit cucumbers. 

    While a friend in Australia, describing someone of a fidgety disposition, says they’re up and down like a toilet seat at a mixed party. It’s the ‘mixed’ that makes me smile most - are single sex parties common in Australia?
    Rutland, England
  • WoodgreenWoodgreen Posts: 1,273
    'You're up and down like a fiddler's elbow' mum would say if we children were up and down the stairs a lot.

    'In and out like a scalded hen' when we were forever coming in and out of the house. 
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