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Sayings, legends and customs.

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I have got the lurgy at the moment.Chesty gough sore throat cant breath etc etc I tried explaining that to my partner saying it came from the school playground. But I don't know where it comes from really. Do you? Nan would say if anyone looked a bit rough, theym like a dyin' ruke (rook) in a thunderstorm, or if someone was a bit OTT they were doing the dyin' duck. She said that came from Swan Lake. She said I had ants in my pants. I wonder if the people she said had St Vitas Dance had terrets?
 
Nico. Interestingly it's not certain where the word lurgi actually comes from but one theory:

"1950s (originally spelled lurgi): used in the British radio series The Goon Show and probably invented by its writers, though possibly from an English dialect term"

My vote goes to the Goon Show version! Viv.
 
" Oh do stop mithering"
"He's right mardy today"

I've used both these sayings down here in the south and no-one understands 'mithering' or 'mardy'. Do people still say these in the Midlands? Or are they words which are disappearing from use? Viv.
 
Vivienne14 said:
Nico. Interestingly it's not certain where the word lurgi actually comes from but one theory:

"1950s (originally spelled lurgi): used in the British radio series The Goon Show and probably invented by its writers, though possibly from an English dialect term"

My vote goes to the Goon Show version! Viv.
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I agree, pure Goon Show. To be pedantic, the correct name is The Dreaded Lurgi. (I'd be very surprised if Spike Milligan wasn't involved somewhere).
 
Vivienne14 said:
" Oh do stop mithering"
"He's right mardy today"

I've used both these sayings down here in the south and no-one understands 'mithering' or 'mardy'. Do people still say these in the Midlands? Or are they words which are disappearing from use? Viv.
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"Mardy" I'd heard before but I don't think I ever heard the expression "meither" till I came to live in this neck of the woods.
 
When someone was adamant he was telling the truth would say "On me babbies eyesight!"

I much prefer " On my accountants eyes".
 
Vivienne14 said:
" Oh do stop mithering"
"He's right mardy today"

I've used both these sayings down here in the south and no-one understands 'mithering' or 'mardy'. Do people still say these in the Midlands? Or are they words which are disappearing from use? Viv.
Click to expand...
Nan used to say stop mithering me, mither rhyming with eye ther, and I was mardy, some rough kids at school said mardy .... and also lard .... if you were considered fat or lazy. Nan also said she was flummoxed. If some was said how are you she would answer"oh fair to middlin;" my mate's Dublinn Gran would say she was malojan, and would sing "skinny malig malojan legs," and if she was tired she could collopse!
So it was the Goons then?
 
Dad once said he used to say yang, ptang, kipperbang at school. Mum gave him a look and said they were a funny lot at his school (a Cov Grammar) They also said hip bar hip bar mee mee mee! ??? A slightly older friend said to me lately, infra dig! I had a writer friend now almost 90 use that in something she wrote. Is that 60's for hip?
 
Never heard those before Bill. Mum used to say "Oh my sainted aunt, and oh my giddy aunt," for a different meaning but the French say mon oeil! - mon oy, (my eye) for the same meaning as yours I think, and put their index finger under their eye. Nan said " me aunt fanny" if she didn't believe you.
Mum would say there's a chap at work gives me the heebeegeebees. I wonder where that comes from?
Of Nan washing her net .....curtains, don't rinse 'em just diddle 'em up and down in the soapy water and hang'em out.
I smiled when I heard how the singer Dido got ger name, = Dicky Di Do. What my gran called her 'difference' differentiating her from being a man ,if you get my drift, Nan called what I had my Dicky Doo Dah.When the tiller girls did the splits Gran would say she'll split her difference, I never got it. She also said womens legs never went up that high when she was a girl, they never went all the way up to your bottom. Maybe it was bloomers she wore?
Nan also said, "well damn my hooray!.
Grandad called the runt of a litter of pigs his mum kept, which never grew, a nisgal. I have never heard that since.
 
Nico said:
Dad once said he used to say yang, ptang, kipperbang at school. Mum gave him a look and said they were a funny lot at his school (a Cov Grammar) They also said hip bar hip bar mee mee mee! ??? A slightly older friend said to me lately, infra dig! I had a writer friend now almost 90 use that in something she wrote. Is that 60's for hip?
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Yes, I think it is.

I've seen it used somewhere or was it mentioned in a song.......?!
 
keegs said:
infra-dig from the latin,infra dignatem,beneath ones dignity.
yang,ptang,etc was the title of a film.
keegs
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Yanp Ptang Kipperbang was the title of a TV drama and something about Danny Blanchflower comes to mind. That is what prompted my dad to tell us he used to say it at School.
 
Yes Nico. It comes from a 1980s TV programme - it was a password used by the gang. I remember seeing it. Viv.

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1361429818.298003.jpg
 
Yes but what I am asking is where did it originally come from? Dad was at school from 1928 till approx 1939. When we watched the programme, Dad said he uswd to say it at school. It was an in thing to say then.
 
No he said they used to say it when he was at school. As I said, from 1928 till around 1939. The one off TV programme we all watched, as was so titled Yang Ptang etc, in the 80's was set during or just after the war years. So the saying is much older. Like Mind My Bike and it's dark over Bill's mothers. Also , It were lovely Mrs 'Ardcastle and don't force it Phoebe, and Fanny by Gaslight, I belive the last one was a film but my dad said all of these things.
 
Hi All,

In a book I have just finished it is said that a common saying by girls about to be married was "Aisle, Altar, Hymn" It is something I have never heard in my long life, has anyone else? If you do not get it try saying it aloud to yourself.

Old Boy
 
Hi Paul. Most people say 'on tenderhooks', but it's actually from 'tenterhook', which is:
"a sharp hooked nail used especially for fastening cloth on a tenter, so on tenterhooks.
It means in a state of uneasiness, strain, or suspense "the waiting kept us on tenterhooks"
First known use of tenterhook: 15th century.
So a nice long history of the word. Viv.
 
Thanks Viv, come up trumps again, I used to my son Christopher yesterday before his interview for a University teatching course, and he asked me what it meant, my dear old Mom, always used it when I was growing up, thanks again .
paul
 
Hope the interview went well Paul.

Hi Lynne. Professor Calculus in Tintin accused of acting the goat...
ImageUploadedByTapatalk1362128220.687865.jpg

Another 'goat' one was 'What's got your goat?' Think it meant being quiet and moody. Viv.
 
Thanks for that Viv, I also remember ''whats got your goat'', didnt that change to ''who rattled your cage''
 
Could well be Lynne. Continuing on a bird theme: Who's ruffled your feathers?!!! Actually now that we know that dinosaurs had feathers, this might have greater significance.Viv.
 
wink came into a few sayings like " a nod's as good as a wink to a blind man", "40 winks", "can't get a wink of sleep", "a twinkle in her eye" or even "wink wink nudge nudge say no more" or is that just eric idle.
 
Mum would say, who rattled your tin? Or I am talking to to the engine driver not the tin can on the back. Or did you fall in the knife box this morning or you will cut yourself one day being that sharp. A twinkle in your daddy's eye. I would rather be an old man's darling than a young man's plaything. If your dad doesn't get a rise soon I am going on the bank steps! I would ask why and she would reply, to get some money. I never got it for years. When teased about being fat at school, she told me she retorted with, I would rather be like I am than be a drainpipe with dirty water in it. She also said dont keep me in suspenders. Or if I ssid, mum my nose is running she would reply, well, I never saw it go past me! Nico
 
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