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Give us yer donny

  • Thread starter Thread starter Seabird
  • Start date Start date
If we were sulking we were told " yer face is as long as Livery St" and yes I remember give us yer donny and all round the wrekin.
 
DavidGrain said:
Gawp is a word in general use, not a local word. Also know in the northern USA. Collins dictionary says it has the same meaning as Gawk but I don't think I have heard that one.
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I can remember it only from my time in Birmingham and have not heard it used since I left, so I assumed it was a local expression my grandmother at Harborne used it a lot as did one or two of the aunts (her sisters).

Bob
 
In my family we used the word buppy for bread and butter or a sandwich. Is this a brummy saying or did it originate in London where my grandparents came from ?
 
Another word used by Brummies of Irish descent who I worked with decades ago was " rakes" "there were rakes of them" which was used when describing a lot of something.
Apparently that word is used to describe a line of coupled coaches on a train
 
dinah46 said:
I still get funny looks when I say I've been all round the Wrekin as I've lived in Lancashire for the last 30 odd years. This thread has brought back to me all the Brummy sayings I grew up with and yes, we did call hands donnies, have arley barleys and 'san fairy ann' and 'any road up' were common expressions in our family.
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Firstly, welcome to the forum!

I got a very funny look from a colleague only the other day when I mentioned that I'd scraged my knee!
 
jonnybrowne said:
Yes, we used to go to the outdoor, have a piece - or a cob - for our dinner, and it was always pikelets, never crumpets - although funnily enough, my wife's from North Yorkshire and also calls them pikelets.

Loved the savoury duck story - a very similar thing happened to me a few years ago. I was in the office on the phone to Mrs. Jonny and we were having our usual 4pm conversation about that evening's catering arrangements: I said "so - what do you fancy for tea then" after which my boss, a posh home counties type, looked over the screen and asked me why I always talked to my wife every afternoon about drinking tea. I explained that tea was what we ate in the evening, whereupon I was told "Oh you mean your SUPPER". I confused him further by telling him "no, no, supper's the snack you have before you go to bed".
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jonnybrowne said:
Firstly, welcome to the forum!

I got a very funny look from a colleague only the other day when I mentioned that I'd scraged my knee!
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jonnybrowne said:
Firstly, welcome to the forum!

I got a very funny look from a colleague only the other day when I mentioned that I'd scraged my knee!
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Once reading this ye olde words come back. I must start using em again. scraged has been replaced by scruffed that wont do. donney is hands . Hold ya donney when crossing the road . hmmm how many more
 
DavidGrain said:
I thought 'All Round the Wrekin' was a Shropshire phrase that had got as far as the Black Country but not to Birmingham where I had never heard it used. I was surprised when a friend from Birmingham used it and it turned out that he had been to school at Wrekin College.

I remember 'Barley' from school often with crossed fingers meaning 'truce'. I am told it is from the French 'parlez' which is the command 'speak'.

I have also been told that 'Donny' is from the French 'Donnez moi le main' which is 'Give me your hand' although if talking to a child (or girl/boy friend) it should strictly be 'Donne moi ta main'
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brummies always shortened words due to the fact there was no time to waste. Hence no time for or er and ar stick an a on the end acta for actor this is now re in vented as text spelling . wrekin we must of been post cause it was all around th wreking or reking. far travel . i ent goin all around the wrekin for that. not worth it.
 
Shortie said:
Well, none of these were ever used in my family, not my grandmother or my mother or even any aunts. Birmingham born and bread and heard them all around but none ever uttered in my house. We did have a bathroom - is this the reason ??? LOL

Shortie
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perhaps a bit to flush. or was the douce wild
 
so would make sense. French hold on words so some of us did not just arrive in 1850 but was here from 1000 ish astonmanor etc
 
French words used in English don't always mean what we think they mean. I live at the end of a Cul-de-Sac but if I translated that into English from the French I might upset the moderators. As I moved out of Birmingham across the border into the Black Country, I am told I should call it a Pudding Bag Street.
 
DavidGrain said:
French words used in English don't always mean what we think they mean. I live at the end of a Cul-de-Sac but if I translated that into English from the French I might upset the moderators. As I moved out of Birmingham across the border into the Black Country, I am told I should call it a Pudding Bag Street.
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Upset the moderator…I am curious now, what are we missing out on?
 
Be that as it may, I’m really not convinced that “donny” comes from either a corruption of the French for “give” imported by WW1 soldiers returning from France - if that were the case it would surely have come into use across the UK, not just the West Midlands - or as has been previously suggested, an abbreviation of the Irish expression “donnybrook” for fists because again I wouldn’t expect that to have been confined to the West Midlands.

My theory, for what it’s worth, is that its origins were within one community and its use just spread within the wider area. We’ll probably never know for sure.
 
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Bob Davis said:
So was I

Bob
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I have just asked my partner who is French. Cul de sac means just what you have all said, the bottom of the bag, and bottom like a rear end. But is is not rude. The French do not get offended it seems and just tell it like it is. As we used to here - my opinion. They have crottes and crottins de chevres, goat's poo and little goat's poo to be polite, which are small goat cheeses. Crottes au chocolat, little dark chocolates shaped liked well....poo. Pet de souer. Nun's wind shall I say being polite again. Little pastry cinnamon swirls . Now they say fesse de bouc, billy goat's bum for FaceBook.

Nan said donny ands, and donnies, being Black country. She also said gnat's p....I can't put here, for weak tea, and maids; water. Very descriptive was Nan.The French say p...de chat. Cat. For the same.I got these from my partner's older relatives who were very direct too. Nan stayed in a guest house once the landlady asked if they wanted a drap o' wet on there dinner, meaning gravy.
 
Nico said:
I have just asked my partner who is French. Cul de sac means just what you have all said, the bottom of the bag, and bottom like a rear end. But is is not rude. The French do not get offended it seems and just tell it like it is. As we used to here - my opinion. They have crottes and crottins de chevres, goat's poo and little goat's poo to be polite, which are small goat cheeses. Crottes au chocolat, little dark chocolates shaped liked well....poo. Pet de souer. Nun's wind shall I say being polite again. Little pastry cinnamon swirls . Now they say fesse de bouc, billy goat's bum for FaceBook.

Nan said donny ands, and donnies, being Black country. She also said gnat's p....I can't put here, for weak tea, and maids; water. Very descriptive was Nan.The French say p...de chat. Cat. For the same.I got these from my partner's older relatives who were very direct too. Nan stayed in a guest house once the landlady asked if they wanted a drap o' wet on there dinner, meaning gravy.
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de la bouche du cheval.

Merci Monsieur

Bob
 
mw0njm. said:
cul-de-sac.. a street or passage closed at one end
blind alley
a street that is designed to connect to another street only at one end
a situation that leads nowhere:
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I noticed when I was over there they have a type of street, Passe de whatever, a passage, and Impasse de whatever which I was told are cul de sacs also.
 
Said of one of my great aunties who was very eccentric, by her mother, "she was the scrapings of the pot." The last child.
Grandad's mum kept pigs and the runt of one of the litters she called the nisgal. Not sure of the spelling.
My great gran used to say pull yer trouser bags up.
Nan had a rhyme, gooin round the ouses pullin up yer trowsiz.
 
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