Favorite Colloquialisms And Sayings

[MarieLynn]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='11 May 2010 - 09:47 AM' timestamp='1273524451' post='2108268']
When I was young, it just meant that kids were getting a bit too wild, as kids often tend to do. It was more of a neutral connotation. Now it's just a way to describe a drunken party, apparently. [img]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/public/style_emoticons/default/lol.gif[/img]
[/quote]


In NZ "rowdy" means noisy.

Now here's one for you! "You look as though you have been pulled thru a gorse bush backwards" - that means that you look untidy.[img]http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/public/style_emoticons/default/unsure.gif[/img]

[Cherie]

[quote name='USAirwaysIHS' date='10 May 2010 - 04:14 PM' timestamp='1273522475' post='2108237']
I don't get why people are averse to might could/used to could/might would/etc. Might could means something entirely different from might or could by themselves. Might could implies both the subjunctive and the conditional.
[/quote]

To each his own, I guess ... ... to me, that is like nails on a chalkboard, I would go crazy every time I heard it!!! I can take any other "Southern-ism": pronouncing "oil" as "ol'", pronouncing "pen" like "pin," even "I'm fixin' to ..." ... but please, ANYTHING but "might could" !!!!!

[CatherineM]

Done throw'd his bit-(Went nuts)

Need to loosen your drawers -(relax, lighten up)

[laetitia crucis]

[quote name='CherieMadame' date='10 May 2010 - 06:22 PM' timestamp='1273530164' post='2108324']
To each his own, I guess ... ... to me, that is like nails on a chalkboard, I would go crazy every time I heard it!!! I can take any other "Southern-ism": pronouncing "oil" as "ol'", pronouncing "pen" like "pin," even "I'm fixin' to ..." ... but please, ANYTHING but "might could" !!!!!
[/quote]


The whole "pen"/"pin", "ten"/"tin" thing always amuses me a bit.

How about "mighta could"?

I've also heard, the phrases "dumber than dirt" and "dumber than a fence post".

---

In the convent we had an on-going debate about "soda" vs. "pop" vs. "coke".

I'm an avid "soda" promoter. Haha!

[ardillacid]

[quote name='CherieMadame' date='10 May 2010 - 12:45 PM' timestamp='1273509948' post='2108114']
[i]"Enough blue to patch a sailor's bottom" - [/i]There's enough patches of blue in the sky on a cloudy day, which means it will be sunny later (NO ONE has heard this one! I heard it in the convent)


[/quote]
I was going to post a variant of that one I heard from a brit: Not enough sky to stitch a pair of trousers

[Ave Maria Totus Tuus]

"Finer than a frog's hair!"

(in response to "how are you?")

...that's mighty fine!

[Socrates]

[quote name='Nihil Obstat' date='10 May 2010 - 04:47 PM' timestamp='1273524451' post='2108268']
When I was young, it just meant that kids were getting a bit too wild, as kids often tend to do. It was more of a neutral connotation. Now it's just a way to describe a drunken party, apparently.
[/quote]
"Rowdy";'s always had a wide range of connotations - generally means wild and out-of-hand.
I recently heard an old man use it to describe serious fighting, sometimes involving knives and guns, between Oakies and Texans in the '50s. "It got rowdy out there back in '55!"


Here's some:
"He's useless as t[font="Arial"]it[/font]s on a bull." (Heard various times in Virginia, though I think that's pretty widespread.)

"Your car needs a new tire like a chicken needs teeth." - old mechanic in Virginia

". . . no more idea than a goose" as in "You have no more idea than a goose what you're talking about." - My mom would sometimes use that (she grew up in western Arkansas).

"All y'all" (plural of y'all) - Texan

Edited May 11, 2010 by Socrates

[Marie-Therese]

I recognize so many of these.

I hear tons of these, in my neck of the woods they are common parts of speech.

Here are a few, right off the top of my head:

"Enough to feed Cox's Army": you cooked too much food. I don't know who Cox was, but apparently he had a large army.

"Sweating like a hooker in church": you are sweating a lot. Obviously.

"Drunk as Cooter Brown": very intoxicated. A variation on Cox's Army. Apparently Cooter, whoever he was, was pretty drunk.

"Peamuckledy": a color that is best described as a sort of mixed up brownish shade. It basically means something is a mix of colors.

"Comin' up a cloud": storm is coming in.

I will think of more later.

[laetitia crucis]

[quote name='Marie-Therese' date='10 May 2010 - 11:01 PM' timestamp='1273546886' post='2108467']
I recognize so many of these.

I hear tons of these, in my neck of the woods they are common parts of speech.

Here are a few, right off the top of my head:

"Enough to feed Cox's Army": you cooked too much food. I don't know who Cox was, but apparently he had a large army.

"Sweating like a hooker in church": you are sweating a lot. Obviously.

"Drunk as Cooter Brown": very intoxicated. A variation on Cox's Army. Apparently Cooter, whoever he was, was pretty drunk.

"Peamuckledy": a color that is best described as a sort of mixed up brownish shade. It basically means something is a mix of colors.

"Comin' up a cloud": storm is coming in.

I will think of more later.
[/quote]



I had forgotten about "Enough to feed Cox's Army" -- I first heard that one while in the convent! I always wondered who "Cox" was. Hahaha!

I think I will add "peamuckledy" to my vocabulary. I really like that one!

I also like Ave Maria Totus Tuus' "Finer than a frog's hair!"... think I'll try to use that one, too.

[Jesus_lol]

"Dey terk ar jerbs! dey touk ur derbs!"

also as an awesome threat my dad taught me "boy i will rip your arm off and wipe the sticky end in your face"

this always resulted in more fascination then anything. lke "is that possible? cool!"

Edited May 11, 2010 by Jesus_lol

[Luigi]

My great-uncle used to say, "I haven't seen him/her/you since Hector was a pup!" meaning "in a very long time." I think it's a line from Last of the Mohicans or something like it.

I also like "X-Y-Z will happen when pigs fly!" And the smart-mouth comeback is "There'll be pork in the trees by morning!"

My friend Chester was VERY skinny; his Kentucky-bred mother used to say, "Chester, you don't eat enough to keep a big bird alive!" And a much older African-American co-worker used to say of him, "Chester, you're as thin as six o'clock!"

[Hilde]

....sa brura

[Vincent Vega]

We're in America, we speak American.

[Maximilianus]

"...as sharp as a sack of wet mice"(not smart)
Foghorn Leghorn said it.

Edited May 11, 2010 by Maximilianus

[Hilde]

[quote name='USAirwaysIHS' date='11 May 2010 - 08:07 AM' timestamp='1273554446' post='2108523']
We're in America, we speak American.
[/quote]
I'm not.