• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Brummie sayings & language

Status
Not open for further replies.
sandracoley said:
charlies dead was said if your petticoat showed beneath your dress and having souds in your socks (holes).....
Click to expand...

Sandra I always had trouble with waist slips (pettycoat) so often heard people shout Charlies dead.

Holes in our socks were spuds I think it's because it looked like a potatoe....lol
 
Froth ours come on a Monday!

I bought a new broom stale recently from the market for my outside broom. I asked for a broom stale and the chap fetched one. I never even realised it wasn't a common word..........you live and learn!
 
Broom or Rake Stale - just had a quick look and it seems to be the common and correct term for a broom handle now as it was then.

From the Free Dictionary -

Stale (stāl)
n.1.A handle, as of a mop; a stale.Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by C. & G. Merriam Co.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hey Bernard I once gave my sister a spoonful of mustard and told her it was lemon curd, mom took to me with a small fire shovel but Granny White used the broom stale which hurt more. My sister still enjoys telling everyone about it as often as she can which pleases my enemies no end. Regards, David.
 
It maybe a bit rude this ......................... "I wanna a cack"

sorry gang but it is what we use to say as kids down our way.............A Brummie saying or no?
 
I think this has been mentioned before, but we always called sweets 'cuckies'. This had nothing to do with the US version of biscuits called cookies though.
 
rowan said:
It maybe a bit rude this ......................... "I wanna a cack"

sorry gang but it is what we use to say as kids down our way.............A Brummie saying or no?
Click to expand...

Definitely is, I remember it from junior school ! I'd forgot that one, wonder where it came from.
 
rowan said:
It maybe a bit rude this ......................... "I wanna a cack"

sorry gang but it is what we use to say as kids down our way.............A Brummie saying or no?
Click to expand...

Don't know if it was particularly Brummie, but I do remember it from junior school days.
Never knew how it came to be, so just looked it up:

cack
(slang) faeces (feces); nonsense or rubbish: "what a load of cack" could equally be used to describe someone talking nonsense or as a criticism of something of poor quality. Also spelt "kak" as used in South Africa. Derived from an ancient Indo-European word, kakkos, cognate with German word "kacke", Welsh word "cach" and the Irish Gaelic word "cac" which means 'sh..' (if you know what I mean!)
I'd guess it came back from India with soldiers serving there at the end of the 19th century, as barrack room slang.
 
Last edited:
Lloyd very well put. Woofy I have never heard of that one but will try it out on Peter to see what reaction I get!!!!!.
 
Yes Lloyed
i agree with jean very wel put ;indeed
in our time war years and just after in the forties we lived up the cromell teraces of lichfield rd and there was four toilets to share amongest twenty odd familys and each morning you had to trape up a big incline of a pathe to get to the toilets carring the night buckets to empty
we all had a buckets to carry and more often than not you had to wait for some one to come out before stepping in and empting your slopps
slopps out and of course if you need to go whilst you was there you delayed people fom emptyin out and they used to shout through the door at you to hurry up because they did not want to walk back down the yard with there bucket full
and bring it back especialy if if was raining or snowning which in them days was more often than not
and thae fact we all had to take our turn inreplacing old news paper to he back of the door for your neiboiurs use if you used the last sheet
of torn up news paper and ajoing the old toilets was a brew house with the copper boiler and mom would say i have got washing to do today light the boiler with this paper before any body else gets in there with the old dolly maid bumper which she always kept down the house
our terrace was about one hundred yards long going up a slope most of the terraces on the lichfield rd was always long terraces
with big familys but getting back on track our expression in those days was i am going to the clarsie ; meaning toilet
best wishes to one and all alan ;; Astonian
 
Lloyd said:
cack ..... I'd guess it came back from India with soldiers serving there at the end of the 19th century, as barrack room slang.
Click to expand...

You could very well be right, Lloyd. According to dictionary.com, it first appeared in the English language between 1890 and 1895.
In Italian the word is "cacca", but my Italian dictionary gives its origins as the 15th Century! Probably from Latin : cacare to defecate. D.
 
If my white three quarter socks were not pulled up properly my mom used to say " pull your socks up your chins bleeding" never knew why she said it.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top