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Give us yer donny

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brenda barr said:
l never heard my father swear he always said l can cuss as good as the next bloke but never in front of a women...my mother had to be really upset to say dame and blast under her breath so l guess l lived a very sheltered live...untill l met my inlaws that's when l really had an education...the young people of today have no idea what they sound like when they cuss ..l am the one who is shocked and when l bring it to their attention they really don't see whats wrong....by the way l only bring it up to my kids and g/kids so they know they have to leave their potty mouth at the front door.
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Funny enough I used "potty mouth" myself this week, I must have delved deep into my memory banks to find that, my Nan used to use it, as she certainly did "show me your donnies". Nice memories those.
 
John L said:
Funny enough I used "potty mouth" myself this week, I must have delved deep into my memory banks to find that, my Nan used to use it, as she certainly did "show me your donnies". Nice memories those.
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Only word I heard in the house was Bleedin' from my father...Mom? ...NEVER A WORD!
What with tv allowing all the Words now, we can only MUTE it when it gets too bad, Eastenders, Corrie, all before 9pm.
 
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Yes, my grandparents used 'donny'. Background West Bromwich, ended up in Hall Green (upwardly mobile hey...) My Nan also said 'biddin' for dustbin, which might have been a corruption for 'midden.'(?) Fizzog for face (yes from physiognomy)
 
One I had not heard in birmingham but I heard a Yorkshire word for head the other day; your ‘Polly’. It’s one of those words that you can track back for many hundreds of years.

Poll originally meant ‘cut someone’s hair’.

Pollard an ‘animal with its horns removed or a ‘tree with its top branches cut off’

We have a poll tax, a tax per head.

Poll as in a collection or counting of votes or counting heads; the sense of the voting at an election
 
COMPRESSORMAN said:
And Tiddler, remember that one?
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Daily.

Morturn said:
Pollard an ‘animal with its horns removed or a ‘tree with its top branches cut off’
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Same as you say regarding a tree, but I have only heard that as a verb. Pollarding a tree, or a tree that has been pollarded.

I suspect that quite a bit of vernacular is just remnants of much earlier common usage.
Andrew.
 
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