Interesting, funny, odd colloquialisms

[KaiserKrebs]

Recently, I noticed my mother using a phrase that I remember my Grandmother using when I was a kid. " He's got more _ than Carter's got pills."

apparently a reference to an old, now defunct medicine company.

My Grandfather, a retired Navy man, constantly refered to any candy or goodies as either " Gedunk" or " Pogey bait "

I lived in Oklahoma for a time, and my work buddies had an expression that they used to show incredulity..." What in the Sam Hill !" I guess it was a variation of " What in the Sam Houston ?" but not sure.

Anyway, always thought these types of things were interesting. I'll bet we can get some good ones considering the diversity, and age range of B&B.

So post what you have heard, in your neck of the woods. Thanks.

 

[Black Adder]

You're initial reference is to Carter's Little Liver Pills. Maybe folks at the time they were popular were overwhelmed with an ad campaign by the company.

I like old colloquialisms and slang. We were slow at work one time, and I went to my supervisor to ask if it was okay for me to "skedaddle" for the day. He looked at me and chuckled, "I haven't heard that word in a while!"

I'm short on time now, but will have to come back. It'll take some time to start remembering other phrases to contribute to this thread.

Don

 

[Barber-Eile]

I've sure I'll think of more but two my mum used to say are
"now you're cookin' with gas"
and "now you're suckin' petrol".
Both mean the same thing which is emm.. I guess "now you're really getting the hang of it".

 

[DavyRay]

I've sure I'll think of more but two my mum used to say are
"now you're cookin' with gas"
and "now you're suckin' petrol".
Both mean the same thing which is emm.. I guess "now you're really getting the hang of it".

"Now you're cooking with gas." came directly from a TV advertisement way back in the day.

 

[Barber-Eile]

Reall? Cool I wonder if we had that ad over here or if maybe the phrase just spread.
Now I think about it she also said "now you're suckin' diesel".

 

[Ru4scuba?]

This thread is the bee's knees!

 

[auk1124]

like #$%^ through a goose = something occurring smoothly, quickly
tighter than Dick's hatband = pretty tight
happier than a pig in #$%^ = pretty darn happy
colder than a welldigger's *** = bitterly cold
hotter than two-fourty Hell = very hot (have no idea where this one came from)
gaum = a noun, indicating a mess, a conundrum, a puzzle, or a screw-up
gaumed = a verb, as in "this lawsuit is all gaumed up"; see definition of gaum
goat-screw = same thing as a gaum
sigogglin = warped or wobbly or askew
ugly as a speckled pup on a gut wagon = not pretty


these are off the top of my head, could probably think of a bunch more.

 

[kg4ghn]

How do you like THEM apples?

Colder than a witches "breast" in a brass bra doing pushups in the snow

Boy, I'll smack you so hard your grandkids will cry

 

[Uncle Erik]

An English friend always tells me to, "pull the other one, it's got bells on."

This is usually in response to my attempts to tease her.

 

[kg4ghn]

crap in one hand and want in the other and see which one fills up first!

I used to get told this after saying, "Hey I want that!"

 

[xillion]

I grew up saying "Bull in a china shop", but my Austrian friend always said "Elephant in a porcelain store." Same meaning but the thought of an elephant always made me laugh.

 

[Umbranaut]

Colder than the balls on a brass monkey.

Nautical term: Brass monkey was a triangular form on war ships.

Cannon balls were stacked inside of brass monkey forming a pyramid.

During very cold weather Brass Monkey would contract thus spilling the cannon balls.

Terry

 

[BlackAngus]

My great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother have all used the phrase "Be quiet, there's a man dead in New York!" whenever we as children were being excessively loud. I've always wondered what that refers to, but none of them know/knew.

"Fair to middling" is a phrase my father always used when asked how he was doing. Some brief research into that one shows that those appear to be grades of cotton. My dad's side of the family were sharecroppers way back, so I have to wonder if that's where it came from.

 

[BlackAngus]

An English friend always tells me to, "pull the other one, it's got bells on."

I have a Russian friend who says the same thing...

 

[proxymoron]

Well smack my *** and call me Sally.

 

[flabajaba2213]

Well, I've got a few, but most of them are kind of regional to New England, Boston mainly.

- Up here, if you say you "got a little color", it means you either tanned or got a sunburn. Elsewhere, it means something entirely different...

- A "packy" is a package store, which is a liquor store. Apparently, when I said packy, a friend thought I was making a racial slur about a Pakistani run store. Go figure.

- Similarly, a friend said that for his birthday, he wanted a pinata full of nips, nips being the airplane bottles of liquor. The same friend from before thought I was being racist against asians, since I had never heard the term nip being applied to asians before.

- This ones from my grandmother. If she was angry with you, she'd tell you, "Oh, go **** in your hat!" And if she was REALLY angry, she'd follow up with, "And pull it down over your ears!"

- An old expression from my grandfather. "That's mighty white of you." means, that's kind of you. It has gotten him in trouble more than once.

- Around here, if a man is "Kennedied", then he is drunk as hell, an homage to the late senator.

 

[Umbranaut]

" That's like trying to pack sand in a rat hole"

I've only heard this saying a couple of times. I would guess it's an act of futility. Since a rat could easily clear the sand from its enterance.

 

[dpm802]

My Grandfather, a retired Navy man, constantly refered to any candy or goodies as either " Gedunk" or " Pogey bait "

I recognize both of those terms ... although I haven't heard them since I got out of the Navy.

Another unique term we used aboard ship referred to anything secured through wheeling and dealing and off-the-books trade ... such as a can of coffee in exchange for several packs of cigarettes, or a stack of magazines traded for a bunch of sci-fi books. Both sides of the transaction referred to their items as "Kumshaw," and this was used both as a noun and a verb.

 

[Umbranaut]

fubar & snafu

I wont explain. I think most of us know these.

I know they aren't coloquial terms but I had to mention them.

 

[Umbranaut]

Crazy as a rat in a round room.

Crazy as a bedbug.

I could see why the rat would be nuts but could never figure out why the bedbug was.