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Thread: Local Expressions / coloquialisms

  1. #31
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
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    Rural, West Central Minn
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    218
    That was like picking fly poop out of pepper with boxing gloves on.

  2. #32
    Grew up Pennsylvania Dutch, and inherited a strange linguistic mix of 18th century low German and English. Even 4th and 5th generation immigrants spoke English with a heavy German Accent. Sometimes folks spoke in English, but with the typical German word order? which resulted in "Throw the horse over the fence, some hay" Throw pop down the steps his shoes. Make me a sandwich. People often mixed in German words or slang when they spoke English, particularly where the German word fit the situation better. We moved about 80 miles from where I grew up and some words were totally new to me. I remember being fidgety in my seat at my desk and the teacher looked at me and said "Quit your "rutchin". We turn statements in to questions by adding "aint" at the end. for instance "He didn't go yet, aint?" or just making it a statement for the other person to agree with. "Nice out, ain,t" We refer to fatty gristly meat as "speck" food. Speck is German for bacon. Sometimes we combine German suffixes to words with English, for instance, "Outen the lights" meaning turn the lights off. Then we have some regional doozies. For instance, "dippy eggs" are sunny side up. Pot pie is a bizarre thick stew similar to chicken and dumplings and has no crust. The dumplings though are huge thick noodles probably 2 inches x 2 inches. We say, "Your full of baloney" to some one who is stretching the truth. When a child misbehaves and we want to scare him into behaving, we would say "the elfderdritchen will get you" When a child fell and ran to grandma for comfort, Granny would rub the affected area and recite a short poem in PA Dutch. "Heilig Heilig Hinkle Drecht, (something I do not recall) und alles recht." Some say it was a folk spell or incantation. I found out Heilig is Holy, Hinkle is Chicken and Drecht is ,,, well... " manure" We have towns named Intercourse, Blue Ball, Virginville, Yoe, Lucky, Paradise, Spry, A famous local landmark 30 years ago was the "O Yes" Hotel in Ono, Pennsylvania (it burned down) Another, still allegedly haunted is the Moonshine Church. A real church with a congregation that is still in existence. 150 years ago, six brothers who attended services there, took out an insurance policy on a guy and then killed him to collect the policy. They were all tried and IIRC, hung together on the same day. (google Blue Eyed Six) Most of the PA Dutch influence on speech in the area had disappeared, but once in a while, I hear a word crop up. Just last week, I heard a man about 30 years old refer to a cow pie as "stinkaschmutz" One of those combined English German words that folks still sometimes use. Schmutz is German for dirt, but to the PA Dutch it means something greasy or slimy. You can understand the English prefix Stink

  3. #33
    "A self eating watermellon."

    (There are several interpretations, the simplest being a thing/organization/process that serves no purpose.)
    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

    “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

  4. #34
    Loved the PA dutch tale Perry!
    "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

    “If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”

  5. #35
    "If you can't run with the big dogs stay on the porch"

  6. #36
    Supposedly PA Dutch: "Too soon ault, too late schmart."
    Mike Null

    St. Louis Laser, Inc.

    Trotec Speedy 300, 80 watt
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  7. #37
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Youngstown, Oh
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    204
    If a blind man can't see it from the street it's close enough.

  8. #38
    Join Date
    Feb 2008
    Location
    E TN, near Knoxville
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    12,298
    Quote Originally Posted by Peter Christensen View Post
    “A waste of oxygen” has always been a good way of describing a twit.
    I've heard the unflattering "What a waste of good food."

    ----------------------------------------------------
    I have no idea how "local" some of these are, and what locale - I'm a transplant.
    I'll have to ask my Lovely Bride - she was born 'n raised in these here parts.

    She has told me "You don't know beans." Can't be wrong there.

    "He couldn't hit the side of the barn from 10 feet", same as "can't shoot for beans"

    My mother told us "You weren't born in a barn", in other words, close the door.

    "Don't let the door hit you on the way out."

    "Don't let him git yer goat" or pull your leg either.

    "Let sleeping dogs lie", surely universal.

    "Hold your horses" and of course "so hungry I could eat a horse."

    Lighten up, "Don't get your knickers all in a wad."

    "He chased her and chased her and chased her 'til finally she caught him."

    "I'm so poor I can't even pay attention."

    "If I had your kind of money I'd burn mine."

    "A day late and a dollar short."

    And what I always told my kids "I'd rather be a whole lot early than a little bit late." Especially when going to the airport.

    JKJ

  9. #39
    Kissin' wears out, Cookin' don't

  10. #40
    Join Date
    Nov 2016
    Location
    Kamiah, ID
    Posts
    280
    Singer/songwriter John Prine put some in a song called It's a Big Ole Goofy World. Google it, too funny!

  11. #41
    "A day late and a dollar short."
    My dad used that all the time.
    Mike Null

    St. Louis Laser, Inc.

    Trotec Speedy 300, 80 watt
    Gravograph IS400
    Woodworking shop CLTT and Laser Sublimation
    Dye Sublimation
    CorelDraw X5, X7

  12. #42
    Join Date
    Jun 2013
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    So glad I started this thread. All of these are great. A few comments:

    Quote Originally Posted by Wayne Lomman View Post
    Well, Malcolm, what a challenge, but fair crack of the sauce bottle, most of the preceding is Greek to me. I was never the sharpest tool in the shed but I have to admit that colloquialisms are my cup of tea. My preferred measurement system is based on poofteenths and bees d***s (can I say that?). My less talented friends are a few kangaroos short in the top paddock, an impossible choice leaves me between the devil and the deep blue sea, and taking a sickie is a civic duty. The only problem with taking a sickie is the boss gets a bit hot under the collar if someone dobs you in so they can suck up to the boss.

    Barracking is what the US describes as rooting. Rooting is what new plants do underground when they are growing, or much more importantly, what two adults do for entertainment when they are alone together and love each other very much. Ankle biters are the result of such activity if the required precautions are not used.

    Out beyond the black stump is where the few uncivilised and anti-social rural people live who find living in the bush too stressful and therefore must go further out into the mulga to find solitude (I find blokes like this in the mirror). Such people are also known to live in Timbuktu, an expression brought back by the Rats of Tobruk in WW2 (seriously). Plenty more but I had better get cracking and pull my weight on the shop floor instead of bludging in the office.

    I highly recommend the books by John O'Grady, especially 'They're a Weird Mob', 'Aussie English: An Explanation of the Australian Idiom', and 'Aussie Etiketr, Doing Things the Aussie Way'.

    Cheers
    Well done, sir- well done.

    Quote Originally Posted by Bill McNiel View Post
    Malcolm, pretty sure you know these;

    "Fall off a skotch and we might pick up a zephyr when we tack."

    "Got up early to catch the morning glass."

    "Wind shifted onshore and mushed up the lip"

    "Tubed"

    "Tucked out and made the blue"
    Now you speak my language, but we say "mashed up", which is common here any time anything is wrecked. The "ed" at the end is optional- he boat all mash up.

    A few others:
    Only two sailors have never run aground- one never left port, and the other was an atrocious liar.

    Shake out a reef, but keep her off the reef

    Holy @#$* you stupid @#$%& I said get the @#$% jib in!!!!!! (very often heard when I was sailing with "Screaming Jack", from whom I learned a lot about sailing, and even more about cussing.)

    You may know this, but "Ship High In Transit" used to be labeled on manure because it was very flammable. They would abbreviate it- you can figure out the rest.

    "Shake a leg" came from when sailors used to sneak girls on board. In the morning, the captain would ask them to "shake out a leg" to show if it was a man or woman in the bunk.

    "He who would go to sea for pleasure would go to hell to pass the time." (I disagree with this one, but it's funny)

    "A man can pretend to be a lot of things, but he can only pretend to be a sailor on the way to the boat." (I've also heard it said "... until he leaves the harbor.")



    Quote Originally Posted by Barry McFadden View Post
    "If you can't run with the big dogs stay on the porch"
    Don't run with the big dogs if you can't pee in the tall grass.

  13. #43
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    Sep 2009
    Location
    Putney, Vermont
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    1,042
    Two I mad up while working in machine shops, toolrooms,, "It ain't going in the space shuttle", and. "We have the technology".

  14. #44
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    Putney, Vermont
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    1,042
    While traveling across the country at 19 years of age, I went into a McDonalds in a small town in either Tennessee or West Virginia. I ordered a hamburger with French fries, and the young woman behind the counter said to me in a very heavy, hillbilly type accent," Y'All wunt dem spuds in a sack". I looked at her and replied Huh?. with a dumfounded face. My travelling friend just stood there and laughed at me.

  15. #45
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    New York, NY
    Posts
    2,203
    Heard in TX Panhandle (Amarillo area) at my friend's parent's ranch:

    Well I'll be dipped in sh*t!
    Surprised.

    Colbeer
    Cold beer. eg: "I was going to get me a colbeer and then Ma went and got in the way of my program."

    Well that just chaps / burns my ass
    This irritates me.

    Let her coast for a while
    Something you've stopped doing eg: "I used to drink me a case of beer a week. Then I figured I'd just let her coast for a while"

    Snatch you bald-headed
    Busted! eg: "Ma's gonna snatch you bald-headed if she catches you with that colbeer"

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