• 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
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Brummie sayings & language

Status
Not open for further replies.
I don't understand the headllne. Why would tourists not come to Brum they come to Cov. My ex colleague from Mancheter originally Sierra Leone had aher honeymoon in Brum and she loved it. They didn't have honeymoons in my parents' day not for the working classes maybe but they had one night in Stourbridge.
 
Another part of the brummie saying when some one is trying to con them,
Do you think I have come on a banana boat or what in there reply do not tell lies,,,,, astonian,,,,,,,
 
Another part of the brummie saying when some one is trying to con them,
Do you think I have come on a banana boat or what in there reply do not tell lies,,,,, astonian,,,,,,,

And where have you been? There & back to see how far it was/ Honest dad i found it. Found it before it was lost more like/ I can read her like a book & i just wish i could shut her up like one!
 
And where have you been? There & back to see how far it was/ Honest dad i found it. Found it before it was lost more like/ I can read her like a book & i just wish i could shut her up like one!
Mum used to say that Smudger. Nan would say I fun in. For I found it. Mum would say what does a man do standing up and a lady do sitting down? Answer Shake hands! Not that many would know that these day but I always rise to the occasion. If someone burped Nan would say get yer fayte out the truff.
 
Hello folks, my lovely old mom used to say when I was a nipper, and lying through my teeth about something or other, mostly the other, 'You can lock up against a thief but there's nothing you can do about a liar, WHACK! Kind Regards David.
 
I may have submitted these before, but here goes:

Our homemade carts were called "goees"

My Dad, if he thought that you were telling fibs would say, "You must think that I came up on the down train"

On Marlies and Glarnies, a shot at the hole was called a "ponk" and on winning
a game you would shout "no tips"

Why, when taking the short cut to Brookvale park from Deykin Ave would you say "Going over the gulley", when a gully is by definition a depression in the ground ?
 
If someone was talking rubbish my dad would say, "what a load of old codswallop"..If someone snitched on you they would be a tell tale tit. Here`s a serious question.... what does the "bone" stand for in rag & bone man?
 
Hi smudger
Surely it as to be old bike frames and scrap iron as one say its a bone shaker when the old bike rattles like those little ,ids scooter or the old three wheeler
Pedal bikes the posh kids had where no one else had them us poor kids in the slums could only look and try and begg a go on there bikes like little queen whom parents was posh and had a tea room down lower Portland street facing buttons factory astonian,,,
 
Hi Chris the other saying was and I did used this myself to my son which is an old saying when I was growing
You must think I came on a banana boat when they are giving you false information,,,,,astonian,,,,,
 
When asked her favourite colour by me, Nan would reply yellercumpink. If someone used a big word with mum, she used to say, we had one of them but the wheels fell off. I can't remember what Nan said akin to your banana boat I will keep thinking. I still can't tell you some of the things Nan said I would be chucked off the site. Best Wishes Nico
 
If someone was talking rubbish my dad would say, "what a load of old codswallop"..If someone snitched on you they would be a tell tale tit. Here`s a serious question.... what does the "bone" stand for in rag & bone man?

Bones were collected and sold to manufacturers of bone handle knives and pipes etc.
 
If someone used a big word with mum, she used to say, we had one of them but the wheels fell off.

Nice one Nico, i like that :-} To give someone a lift on the crossbar of your bike was a "croggy" Saturday night round the back of the Brookvale pub was the occasional punch up & nearly everyone would stream out of the pub to watch. I can remember my dad saying, " it`ll all be over in a minute, so & so couldn`t punch his way out of a paper bag"
 
If someone moved pretty sharpish Nan would say" I think their axxe is on fire". Or if someone was say cleaning with gusto " 'ers a gooin at it like a pig at a' tater". She used to say of the female residents of Box Hill (apologies to any who may read this) that they were fearsome characters who wore big 'urden or hurden? aprons. Can anyone tell me what such aprons were? I might say where are you going Nan, she would reply to see Tip'on run. I finaly got out of her that Tip'on was Tipton. She said jitty for gulley.
 
Nan also called horizontally striped dresses, stick -a- rock frocks and tall hats tree pot hats. And ladies with elasticated waists like a bag o' sxxx tied up ugly,
 
Nico, my Mom used to say "Yellercumpink" too! I haven't heard it for years. Our neighbour used to have urden aprons, it was rough cloth but not as heavy as sacking, a dirty sort of beige colour....or perhaps that was dirt!
rosie.
 
If someone moved pretty sharpish Nan would say" I think their axxe is on fire". Or if someone was say cleaning with gusto " 'ers a gooin at it like a pig at a' tater".

Sounds like your nan has got some Lincoln blood in her veins " 'ers a gooin at it like a pig at a' tater." A variation on your axxe theme, when sitting on the wall of the Brookvale pub & a certain kind of woman walked past, my uncle (who himself was as ugly as sin) would say " She`s as rough as a badgers axxe" i never understood it but it sounded funny. Also, when dad asked mom how much did that cost, she replied "money & fair words" In other words mind your own business!
 
Well Smudger and Rosie now I know. I thought Nan wa dropping her H's with the urden but. The ladies she spoke of used to make the nails and chains in little places at the back of their kitchens. One was her mother in law's sister. I thought yellow cump pink as I said it was a real colour. Nan was from nr Stourbridge her family were furnicemen or glassblowers. Her dad was bow legged and she said of him, "ee cor stop a pig in an entry." "Ee's a rum un," for a quirky person or "it's a rum do."
 
No doubt that it's been mentioned before but my father ( ex Kings Heath) had a particular saying describing a rather morose person he had met, "He/She had a face as long as Livery Street" which certainly betrayed his Birmingham origins. (Is that particular thoroughfare particularly long still ?)
 
One of my aunties used to say it too but as ' face as long as Livery' (missing off the street bit) I understood what she meant by it but I never linked it to the street until much later.

Livery Street is still there but I didn't think it was particularly long. I'd be interested to know if it was originally longer.
 
Nan might say "er ferce (face) 'ud stop a clock!" We have lost a huge amount of people recently and she would have said, 'it comes in three's' then 'mild winter - full churchyard',; my dad called her 'Job's comforter'.
 
Nan said pound instead of sixpence, Paul. Usually said to me when she said 'I had a got a face on', meaning I looked miserable. "an yow can wipe that look of yer ferce!' , Of someone she thought of as stupid, she would say, 'I have forgotten more than they'll ever know'.
 
A saying came to me a few days ago that my mother used to use ,if a child was acting up etc.."he needs a good tanning" was that a brummie saying?...Brenda
 
A saying came to me a few days ago that my mother used to use ,if a child was acting up etc.."he needs a good tanning" was that a brummie saying?...Brenda
Hi Brenda - I can remember as a child being threatened with a 'good tanning' and because of it I had a 'face like fourpence'.
Phil
 
If there was a mardy child in a shop or one having a tantrum Nan would say 'If he were mine I'd tan 'is a...e for 'im!' But if it was about adults fighting, it would be a good leatherin' or for say a nail, a good 'ommerin'. The mothers of Box Hill gave one of the male teachers a leatherin' and a good 'idin' for 'caning' one of their offspring - with a plank. He did the same to my mum and my grandad laid him out cold. The teacher, who was ex army, got his marching orders for using corporal punishment on too many children. As nan would have said, 'ee slung 'is 'ook!' Sling yer hook, also meant get out of here.
.
 
My mom would say "I've been all around the Wrykin looking for you". It wasn't until later life I discovered the Wrykin was in Shropshire
 
Nan said all round the Wrekin. If she went the long way round to get something or somewhere. When she was dishing up and asked if you wanted some more she would say"speak now or forever hold your peace."
 
If I whinged mum would say' 'you're a moaning minnie from Tip'n run. Tip'n was how they pronounced Tipton. There was another expression, where are you gooing Nan? arm a gooin ta see Tip'n run. I never found out what that meant or if it is a place.
 
Where are you going? "There and back to to see how far it is" How much did that cost? "Money & fair words" A polite way of saying, "mind your own business"
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top