| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #5683 is a reply to message #3367 ] |
Thu, 20 November 2008 19:06   |
|
That is too cool, Angel. Thanks for posting it.
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #5685 is a reply to message #3367 ] |
Thu, 20 November 2008 19:11 |
|
And also for making "shrimp" an adverb. Shrimply. Now that's brilliant.
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #5703 is a reply to message #3367 ] |
Thu, 20 November 2008 20:46 |
|
"That's all it is -- the synchronicity of the universe when you're tuned into one thing or another. Plate-o-shrimp is a great concept."
That's what O had to say about it, and that blends in well with the synchronicity post Angel linked to.
Plate o' shrimp--before I got my new car (an Outback Subaru that's blue and silver) I had never noticed the car before. Now that I have the car, I see them everywhere, in different colors, but mostly the blue and silver.
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #6692 is a reply to message #3367 ] |
Tue, 02 December 2008 19:40 |
|
|
Does anyone else use or hear the phrase 'swing a cat' or alternatively, 'swing a dead cat' to describe something as being so common that you 'can't swing a cat without hitting one'?
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #6697 is a reply to message #3367 ] |
Tue, 02 December 2008 19:46 |
|
I've heard the "swing a dead cat" one, Charis. And up here I have heard "throw a rock" with the same meaning.
"You can't throw a rock in the Avenues without hitting a professor."
[Updated on: Tue, 02 December 2008 19:46]
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
|
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #6710 is a reply to message #6708 ] |
Tue, 02 December 2008 20:06 |
|
| Kathy_S wrote on Tue, 02 December 2008 20:04 |
The only usage I've heard of "swing a cat" would be variations on "There ain't room enough to swing a cat in here." I have heard Shelley's "throw a rock" example, though.
Why would anyone want to swing a cat?
|
i heard both as well and used there isn't enough room to swing a cat to describe my youngest daughter's room.
Bonnie Holmes the faster ahead I go, the more behind I get
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #6712 is a reply to message #6708 ] |
Tue, 02 December 2008 20:09 |
|
| Kathy_S wrote on Tue, 02 December 2008 18:04 |
The only usage I've heard of "swing a cat" would be variations on "There ain't room enough to swing a cat in here." I have heard Shelley's "throw a rock" example, though.
Why would anyone want to swing a cat?
|
Well, it could be fun, if you were EVIL.
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #6714 is a reply to message #3367 ] |
Tue, 02 December 2008 20:11 |
|
|
*phssst* you always seem to catch me when i'm drinking[looks for paper towels again].
[Updated on: Tue, 02 December 2008 20:12]
Bonnie Holmes the faster ahead I go, the more behind I get
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #6716 is a reply to message #3367 ] |
Tue, 02 December 2008 20:13 |
|
You should not drink and read. It's irresponsible. DWR.
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #6717 is a reply to message #3367 ] |
Tue, 02 December 2008 20:14 |
|
*snork*
Bonnie Holmes the faster ahead I go, the more behind I get
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #6724 is a reply to message #6708 ] |
Tue, 02 December 2008 20:31 |
 |
 ArtfulMagpie
Messages: 34
Registered: November 2008
Location: Chicago area |
Member |
|
|
| Kathy_S wrote on Tue, 02 December 2008 19:04 |
Why would anyone want to swing a cat?
|
Have you ever met a cat? Ha!
Sometimes it seems that their only purpose in existing as a species is to be the most contrary, demanding, bizarre, perverse, aggravating, and all-around adorable, impossible to hate creatures alive.
Just when you think, "That's it, if you don't stop chewing on the rug I will SWING YOU BY YOUR TAIL!" you look over and the cat is sleeping on his back, paws drawn up to his chin, looking a perfect angel. So you don't swing the cat. But you think about it real hard, then go rub the cat's belly.
"...nothing is more fatal to maidenly delicacy of speech than the run of a good library."
— Robertson Davies
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #6725 is a reply to message #3367 ] |
Tue, 02 December 2008 20:36 |
|
Why, I would NEVER think this way.
Of course, I'm allergic, so I don't have a cat to swing. And my dog is an Aussie and doesn't have a tail. (Darn.)
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #6734 is a reply to message #6712 ] |
Tue, 02 December 2008 21:44 |
|
Erm, I have a rather sad and inappropriate story about one of my father's friends, which does in fact involve the swinging of a cat. I'm a huge softy and cat lover, so the story isn't my favourite, but it is somewhat redeemed by the fact that said cat-swinger is a softy, too, and felt absolutely terrible about the poor cat.
Edited to add: we Nova Scotians love telling stories, but one of the comments I got frequently in Ontario when I lived there, and I have heard said about other Bluenoses, is that half the time our stories are funny, but when you least expect it they're just sad or depressing or highly uncomfortable. Count this among one of this instances. Sorry! It's my nature. 
[Updated on: Tue, 02 December 2008 21:45]
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #6745 is a reply to message #6739 ] |
Tue, 02 December 2008 23:52 |
|
| R and B wrote on Wed, 03 December 2008 16:09 |
Has anyone read or heard this? Mainly from Brit's I must admit-
to say "Give me a fag" meaning give me a cigarret or "I'm fagged" meaning I'm tired. I have read that wood for a fire- like a burning at the stake was referred to as "faggots".
I've read these phrases in older british literature- so I'm guessing that calling a cig a "fag" stems from calling burning wood "faggots". Has anyone run across this?
BTW, I love this thread-it is so interesting!
|
Well Wikipedia says this:
The origins of the word in this preceding sense are rather obscure. The word faggot has also been used in English since the late 16th Century to mean "old or unpleasant woman," and the modern use may well derive from this.[1] Female terms, it should be noted, are often used with reference to homosexual or effeminate men (cf. nancy, sissy, queen). The application of the term to old women is possibly a shortening of the term "faggot-gatherer", applied in the 19th Century to people, especially older widows, who made a meagre living by gathering and selling firewood.[2] It may also derive from the sense of "something awkward to be carried" (compare the use of the word "baggage" as a pejorative term for old people in general).[3]
It is sometimes claimed that the modern slang meaning developed from the standard meaning of "faggot" as "bundle of sticks for burning," presumably with reference to burning at the stake.[3] This is unlikely to be the case
AnswerBank says this:
Both terms come from the same root. A "fag end" is from the Middle English "fagge" meaning the frayed end of a length of cloth or rope or an inferior or worn-out remnant. Weavers used it to refer to a broken thread in cloth that hangs loose. It has also come to mean the last part of something.
It s use to mean a cigarette is a 20th Century slang invention from the "fag end" already in use to mean the used stub. It was transferred in American slang to indicate that a male homosexual was an inferior tatter and of no use to society. Its alternative form "faggot" is a corruption of this and not a use of the same word derived differently.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #7212 is a reply to message #5619 ] |
Sun, 07 December 2008 12:21 |
 |
Creek
Messages: 44
Registered: October 2008
Location: Valencia, CA |
Member |
|
|
[quote title=Megan wrote on Wed, 19 November 2008 22:40]I've always heard "six to one, half dozen, the other." Not much variation, but some.
That's the way my husband uses that phrase. He uses it ALL the time and it drives me up a wall!!
"remember, it's called a play... that means you should PLAY"
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #7215 is a reply to message #3913 ] |
Sun, 07 December 2008 12:39 |
|
Creek
Messages: 44
Registered: October 2008
Location: Valencia, CA |
Member |
|
|
| SoItGoes31 wrote on Fri, 07 November 2008 02:54 |
My dad's family is from western pennsylvania, so they say "crick" instead of creek, and you plural (like y'all) is yunz or yoonz or yoinz. It's a hard word to write down. There's also a whole bunch of stuff I didn't realize was strange until we watched a video about western pennsylvania dialect in my anthropology class, like meer instead of mirror, and melk instead of milk, something my roommate will probably never stop making fun of me for. But most of that is just accent rather than actual different words. Then there's redlight instead of stoplight, gumband instead of rubber band, and the way inanimate objects need things, like the car needs "warshed" or the grass needs cut. Also lots of leftovers that need et up.
|
I think it's spelled "yinz" or at least that's the way I learned to spell it. I spent about half my life in Pittsburgh and there are a lot of word substitutions. Some of my personal favorites are:
"nebby" for nosy -- "don't mind me, I'm just being nebby"
"red up your room" for clean up your room
"sweep" is used for both broom and vacuum -- "I'm going to sweep the carpet"
"jeet jet" for did you eat yet?
Here's a website for more fun facts and phrases from da Burgh!!
"remember, it's called a play... that means you should PLAY"
|
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #7220 is a reply to message #7215 ] |
Sun, 07 December 2008 13:04 |
 |
AJLR
Messages: 2564
Registered: September 2008
Location: England, UK |
Senior Member
[Moderator] |
|
|
| Creek wrote on Sun, 07 December 2008 17:39 |
"red up your room" for clean up your room
|
To 'red' (or 'redd') meaning clearing up is a word that's familiar to me from my native Yorkshire. Amazing how these things travel around.
[Updated on: Sun, 07 December 2008 13:05]
"Never let a computer know you're in a hurry."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #7232 is a reply to message #3367 ] |
Sun, 07 December 2008 14:06 |
|
This reminds me of the lines in Bored of the Rings that went something like this:
And as he stopped speaking, a shadow fell across his face.
"I would say more," said Goodgulf, "but this shadow seems to have fallen across my face."
(Paraphrased.)
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #7238 is a reply to message #7232 ] |
Sun, 07 December 2008 14:39 |
|
Bord of the Rings?
ROFL (rolling on the floor laughing) And not for the first time reading this thread.
Here are a few German idioms:
Standing on your line
(picture someone trying to water the lawn with one foot firmly standing on the hose. They are looking down into the hose trying to figure out why the water isn't coming out of it. It's used when the situation is obvious but the person in question can't understand.)
I understand train station.
(We know it as: it's all Greek to me.)
You can wear a neck tie to bed.
(when you've done something you can really be proud of ... you can go to sleep in your best because you are the best.)
LRK Hope you feel better soon!
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #7244 is a reply to message #7238 ] |
Sun, 07 December 2008 16:33 |
|
Oh! I took German a few years ago and there was one guy in my class who could never seem to pick up anything at all beyond a few place names and 'good morning', etc, and whenever he'd have to say something aloud in class the teacher would comment that "At least you know bannhoff!" (Is that right? I can't remember it now). It didn't occur to me that it might be an idiom and used by other people...
In class last week, one of my professors was talking about the study abroad program he'll be leading in the summer and he said "We'll be going to more ruins than you can throw a dead cat at" and it was so funny and I've never heard it used like that before... I immediately thought of this thread.
"The center of every man's existence is a dream. Death, disease, insanity, are merely material accidents, like a toothache or a twisted ankle. That these brutal forces always besiege and often capture the citadel does not prove that they are the citadel."
|
|
|
| Re: Local Phrases and Sayings [message #7278 is a reply to message #3367 ] |
Mon, 08 December 2008 01:09 |
|
I've heard that one before, about throwing the dead cat. Never done it though.
"And by the way you look fantastic in your boots of Chinese plastic."
|
|
|
Members
Search
Help
Register
Login
Home
And maybe a lunch suggestion, too, for that matter... LOL)
