If a big word came up say on TV, "we ad one of them but it died, or we ad one of them but the wheels fell of it"Following up on Senoraruz, the conversation around our family was:-
“Where’s the whatnot gone?”
”It’s ’angin’ up, on the floor, be’ind the jug!”
Molly Coddled appears to be universal. These are the lyrics to an American song called Molly CoddledYo'wm muthered an' smothered,..... Nan thought I was molly coddled.I 'Ees mammy licked..... of a very timid child I was at school with. I wonder where Molly Coddled originates?
Truck is a word I have heard many times. I think, but I cannot say authroitively, that it has the same meaning as is used in the laws know as the Truck Acts. These laws forbid the payment of wages to workers other than in cash. This was because many employers were paying in goods such as food or were paying with vouchers that could only be exchanged in the employer's shops. These company shops were called 'Truck Shops' or 'Tommy Shops' and the goods that were sold were called 'Truck'. Often these goods were of an inferiour quality so the word Truck came to mean rubbish.My brother recommended the latest Tracey Chevalier book 'A Single Thread' about the 'surplus' single women after the first wold war. It prompted a discussion about my Aunt Nell who was unmarried and about the same age as the women in the book and I remember asking Mom (Nell was her sister) why she wasn't married. Mom said that she had had lots of followers and lots of offers but 'wouldn't have any truck with them'. I haven't heard this expression used by anyone else but Graham said his Mom and Nan used it too. Any idea where this might have originated please?
Theoretically an officer should have no truck with thieves.
I thought this was a very good point A Sparks. The only other word I can think of at this time was 'piece' which to us means a totally different thing than to other people. I know that there are other words too.I remember my Nan using that word too @Lady Penelope , no idea where it comes from!
Words like that are interesting aren't they - they are not (usually) in the dictionary but we come to understand exactly what they mean from childhood.
I had forgotten those Lady P. and Fairy Ellen, Fairy Fay and Fanny Ann.Well Nico, at home I was 'Mary Ellen' and my brother was 'Johnny Rosser'. Neither of which is anything like our own names.
Also, I know it's not limited to Birmingham, but does anyone know where 'blowed' comes from, as in 'I'll be blowed' or 'I'm blowed if I know'?
I remember that one. It was't Lobby Ludd. Coventry Telegraph used to do that, he was called Telegraph Tommy.One of the Poirot TV programmes featured Poirot being mistaken for Lobby Lud, although they may have used a different name.
Strangely enough my lunch time task today was to try and solve your question, (only really to stop me keep going back to the Court Lane and Goosemoor Lane pictures posted by Tates) but whilst I could find hundreds of meanings for I'll be blowed, I could not find the etymology or an original source, however while scrolling through various pages related to 'blowed', I came across I'll be jiggered and the origin of that is that jiggered replaced a swear word beginning with B and my twisted mind just wondered if blowed was a replacement for the word that jiggered replaced. It is unusual not to be able to find what you need on Google, however such is life. Oddly enough all the way through 'blowed' has been red underlined as a spelling mistake. Well I'll be blowed.Well Nico, at home I was 'Mary Ellen' and my brother was 'Johnny Rosser'. Neither of which is anything like our own names.
Also, I know it's not limited to Birmingham, but does anyone know where 'blowed' comes from, as in 'I'll be blowed' or 'I'm blowed if I know'?
Re your name Lady Penelope. I used to have a problem saying Penelope a a child. It came out as Fenelope. And dad always pronounced it, Penner lope.Strangely enough my lunch time task today was to try and solve your question, (only really to stop me keep going back to the Court Lane and Goosemoor Lane pictures posted by Tates) but whilst I could find hundreds of meanings for I'll be blowed, I could not find the etymology or an original source, however while scrolling through various pages related to 'blowed', I came across I'll be jiggered and the origin of that is that jiggered replaced a swear word beginning with B and my twisted mind just wondered if blowed was a replacement for the word that jiggered replaced. It is unusual not to be able to find what you need on Google, however such is life. Oddly enough all the way through 'blowed' has been red underlined as a spelling mistake. Well I'll be blowed.
Bob