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Brummie sayings & language

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Hello Jean - I'm just catching up with this thread. My sister and were always whistling and my Mom used to say "A whistling woman and a crowing hen are neither good to God nor men!" Just slightly different to what your Aunt Nell used to say. Judy
 
Doctor Corker always told Pete to go Pete to pee on his chillblanes. When you saw a woman [usually as the men were out working] with red patches on the front of her legs you would say they were pickled cabbage legs. Judy I love some of these old sayings as it brings back some lovely memories. Jean.
 
Jayell said:
Hello Jean - I'm just catching up with this thread. My sister and were always whistling and my Mom used to say "A whistling woman and a crowing hen are neither good to God nor men!" Just slightly different to what your Aunt Nell used to say. Judy
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That reminds me, an old saying I aint heard for years. ' Oh well sez Nell- the hole in me a#se will never get well'
 
There are a couple of sayings I have been recently reminded about, but not necessarily brummie.

1. If you saw a girl really flirting - they used to say 'you jezebel'

2. If someone was really dressed up - the comment was 'who does she think she is Lady Docker'
 
sistersue61 said:
Nan and my great aunts used to say "well dog bite me" if surprised by something, no idea where it came from!
Sue
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Hi Dad always used to say"Dont go by him, he has got his a&&&se in his hand! when we moved to Burton, they
used to say"He has got a bag on", or hes got a right bag on", Bernard
 
Coming from Aston as most of us do. As a young kid I can remember throwing stones across the old bomb pecks at ya mates and at the windows of the old empty houses, How lovely was the sound of breaking glass then.

Not long back, my missus shouting at the Grandchildren outside. Made me chuckle!! when she shouted at them. "Put them duckers down" Oh the memories came flooding back. Reg.
 
chrisbusbyoutbase said:
My mother said she was going to have pikelets for tea. We use to sit in front of my nans fire toasting them on a fork. The packet in which they were bought the other day pronounced crumpets. So a round flatish thing with lots of holes in the top to me is a pikelet so what do the rest of you Brummies call them.
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Pikelets! LOved em.full of oles for the best Danish butter to run through, YUMMY! John Crump OldBrit Parker. Co USA
 
An old word came into my mind yesterday - varmint - if I was behaving badly my mom used to say "you little varmint". Never heard that in donkey's years.
 
HI REG;
We use to use the term duckers but we did not throw stones at the windows of old empty houses around aston
in fact i do not recall seeing any old bomb pecks in y time around aston ; and i do not recall any lads down any of the streets in and around aston in my era ; so can you tell me where there duckers was thrown around and what generation this is or was in aston
i was born on the lichfield rd and there was some big familys knocking about in my years catherine st ; wain wright st pugh rd park rd
park st ; albert rd and the surrounding area it must be in your sixties era this must have been
all or most of he gang of kids would probaly heckle to another gang of kids and shout come on but never seen the duckers being thrown
have a nice evening regg; nice to hear from you again and i hope you are keeping well best wishes astonian
 
Another old saying from parents;
clean your self up and put spit and polish on those shoes ; you look like a rag and muffin and comb your hair
Or else ? . or you aint gonna get no tea ; astonian;
 
we used 'barley' as a truce word in Lancashire, especially as a way out of being caught, but we had to stand on one leg until we joined in again.
 
My Mom used the word 'Blart' or 'Blarting' for someone crying....

Looking for it on a search engine, it means something completely different.
There's a mention of it meaning crying up north....... She ain't never been there though. :)
 
One I have not heard for years. 'Ars# from a bulls foot' as in you dont know Ars# from a bulls foot about it !

Might just be a Brum version of hay from a bulls foot, but I like it better.
 
From its elbow was the one I remember. What about 'I'll gi yer a smack in the fizzogg if yer try ter tek that shrapnell orf mi.' Regards, David
 
I remember my father using the term "Nutty slack" to refer to a person, I know it is a term for coal.

But what would it refer to for a person?

All the best Peter
 
Pedrocut said:
I remember my father using the term "Nutty slack" to refer to a person, I know it is a term for coal.

But what would it refer to for a person?

All the best Peter
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The real meaning is coal dust with a few small lumps in, often used to 'bank' a fire up overnight as it burned slow and would stil be alight in the morning (VERY useful on a freezing winter's day!). As a rhyming slang word it could stand for 'Black', but more likely was the 'nutty' as in a bit crazy, and 'slack' as useless, i.e. someone of low intellegence who wasn't really capable of doing a good job.
 
I love reading throught this thread.....so many of these sayings etc have brought back so many memories for me. Altho I've lived in the North East for more years than I ever lived in dear ol Brum, I still use many of the sayings & expressions I've read about on here....without thinking about their origin really. Dont you think that growing up using these words/phrases etc...you think everyone should automatically 'know' what they mean because you do!! Now that my Dad lives up north too, when we part we always call out "Tara a bit"....which usually makes us smirk while others look at us as if we've gone 'arry & willy!! Dont you just love our Brummie language.....it's bostin innit?
 
I can remember standing at the fire place with the "Draw tin" in me hand trying to get the fire go.
Lloyd said:
The real meaning is coal dust with a few small lumps in, often used to 'bank' a fire up overnight as it burned slow and would stil be alight in the morning (VERY useful on a freezing winter's day!). As a rhyming slang word it could stand for 'Black', but more likely was the 'nutty' as in a bit crazy, and 'slack' as useless, i.e. someone of low intellegence who wasn't really capable of doing a good job.
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Reg Cook said:
I can remember standing at the fire place with the "Draw tin" in me hand trying to get the fire go.
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reg we never had a draw tin..used to use the sports argus or the evening mail to draw the fire..more often than not it caught fire and put us in a right old flap..lol...happy days
 
Yes Lyn. We used to put the newspaper over the top of the Draw tin. had used to catch fire very often ye. XXXX
Astoness said:
reg we never had a draw tin..used to use the sports argus or the evening mail to draw the fire..more often than not it caught fire and put us in a right old flap..lol...happy days
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