Funny old sayings that give away (y)our age

28 meanings of "jigger" as defined on GI - measuring device, handcar, sail, small weight, snooker rest, flea, prison cell, boot-sole polisher, odd-looking person, distillery, penis, cooper's knife, potter's wheel, back passage, lathe, women's coat, sieve, dancer, pulley, door, golf club, ouija board, policeman, vagina, thingummy.

Yes the episode is on i-Player, as "QI - Series J - 1. Jargon" with Victoria Coren, Bill Bailey, Jimmy Carr (cheeky in this one but not as coarse as he sometimes can be) and Alan Davies.

@sook : "Where I live now lobby means a pan of stew."

Ah... would that be a link to the Liverpudlian 'pan of scouse' - scouse being from a Scandinavian word, 'lobskaus'? Forgive me if my spelling there is a bit how's yer father...

vampirequeen, my dad told me that Yorkshire had as many acres as there were letters in the Bible.

Thank you Elegran I will take a look. It's unbelievable how many meanings one little word can have.

feetlebaum I'm a former Wirral girl ( Seaside Scouser) it's definately a pan of scouse for me . I had heard of the Scandanavian connection and of course there was a huge influx of Irish immigrants to Liverpool who had their very own Irish stew. At home ours was always made with the cheapest cuts of lamb and must go veggies usually carrots, spuds, onion. The non meat version was called Blind Scouse.

It was a good episode, Soop lots of "badinage" with Victoria Coren giving as good as she got (but pretending to be shocked at times at Jimmy Carr)

Don't let Mr Soop laugh too hard at it, it will set his recovery back.

We say 'I'm jiggered' when we've been working hard and are tired.

So do we. I always thought that the "jig" was a substitute for "bug".

....and when did railway station become train station?

Whenever my Nana hurt herself [she dropped a coal bucket on her foot on one occasion] she'd exclaim... 'OOh, it didn't 'alf give me beltink'

When playing games, if we wanted to be last we would say baggy laggy and second to last would be baggy seggy laggy
I used to go to the Saturday pictures for 6d. It was called the Silver Lining Club and we would all sing Look for the silver lining at the beginning of each session. The Cinema was packed with singing and cheering children and very few adults, only the cinema staff. There were no incidents of inappropriate behaviour. We cheered the goodies and booed the baddies. it was great.

When my English granny was surprised by something, her exclamation was 'Good night!' She came from Leicestershire.
My other granny, a strict Scottish Presbyterian, would come down on us like a ton of bricks if we said 'good gracious' because it was something people said instead of 'good God' and was one step removed from taking the Lord's name in vain. She must be turning in her grave now.

When we're in the car and keep moving at a decent speed we boodle along.....as in 'we were boodling along but then we got caught in a traffic jam'

My mother's favourite response to any comment about something or other being less than perfect was 'sure a blind man on a galloping horse would never notice'.

Did anyone else go 'up the street for the messages'?

Ah went doon the street for oor messages, baubles!

Up the street or down the town.

That's it, anno! "Gang up the street fur yer messages" or "Ah'm gau'n doon the toon fer tae get some potted heid!".....braw!

A pun o' mince and hauf a stane o' tatties.

An' a bag o' granny sookers, tae!

Marelli, anno looking peelywally was one used in ooor hoose.

Grannybug!

I still use 'peelywally' because I think it sums up a particular appearance better than any standard English expression.

It does, anno! All pale and clammy! (Wally = plaster/pot as in 'wally dug'. The pot dogs that sat on mantle-pieces)

pale and clammy reminded me of a Yorkshire saying. An old woman was heard describing how she reacted to something scary:

'Eee, ah went white as a privy mawk (outside toilet maggot)

Baubles... yes my Gran used the 'gallopping horse' expression, and yes we were sent to the village shops for messages.
Lots of Liverpudlian words and expressions used in N.Wales, we always had lobscouse on a day when Mum was washing (boiling sheets etc in a boiler!) as it could be put in a pan and left to get on with it. Lobscouse was made using marrow bones, boiled up the night before, skimmed the next day and lots of root veg added, meat came later when there was more money about!

P.S. My sisters and I still make it, nothing like it on a cold day. We no longer use marrow bones tho' (Butchers' attutudes when asking for them and B.S.E. put paid to that!) we use stewing beef now.