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What an odd phrase or saying!

(86 Posts)
phoenix Fri 13-May-16 15:26:26

Afternoon all.

Sorting through my drawers wink and having a bit of a clear out, I found a ridiculous amount of (ahem) lingerie, which, sadly is very unlikely to be ever worn again.

I found myself saying to Mr P that I had more of a certain item than you could shake a stick at!

What an odd saying that is! Why should there be a finite number of things at which one can shake a stick? Plus, surely there are things at which shaking a stick would do no good at all.

I wonder how this phrase came about?

trisher Sun 15-May-16 10:13:43

We sometimes had Windmill Pie for tea "if there's enough to go round"
occasionally it was "bread and pullet" -no idea what that meant.
Regularly it was "Wait and see".
We also had "Whim whams for meddler's noses" whenever you asked anything really!

JackyB Sun 15-May-16 11:07:54

We always got "Wait and see" for dinner, too.

And my Nanna used to say "Oh dear, xxx o'clock and no baby bathed" - which is probably pretty self-explanatory.

Mind you, these days, bathing the baby seems to have gone out of fashion - our grandchildren certainly don't get bathed every day like we, and our own offspring, did.

And my mother often said "He's big enough and ugly enough to ...." which she claims her own Dad used to say a lot.

One of my favourites of hers, which is applicable more often than you'd think, was "No sense, no feeling".

pollyperkins Sun 15-May-16 11:22:39

Oh i say (when wasting time) 'well this wont get the baby bathed'! Actually all my grandchildren still have daily baths.
Bread and pullet is a play on words:
It suggests chicken (pullet) but can also mean just bread, and pull it! My grandmother said that and thought it a great joke!

pollyperkins Sun 15-May-16 11:24:27

Yes, where there's no aense theres no feeling!
Also : no room to swing a cat! I used to think it cruel to cats but understand now it means the cat'o' nine tails on board ships.

mischief Sun 15-May-16 11:38:57

A saying my mother said very often was 'Oh, my giddy Aunt'. Don't know which one she referred to. wink

Lupatria Sun 15-May-16 12:22:21

my mum used to say my giddy aunt fanny - although i never knew who aunt fanny was!!
it seems that many gransnetters' families have also used the sayings that my family used too. perhaps it's something to do with our parents' generation as you don't hear these sayings very much these days.

etheltbags1 Sun 15-May-16 12:31:18

Ive never heard of the 'shake a stick' saying, and I believe that 'steady the buffs ' is a naval saying.

narrowboatnan Sun 15-May-16 12:48:19

Ive just opened that link that Shysal put on. I'm still laughing! Really! The thought of it! Rofl! wink

Lupin Sun 15-May-16 13:04:29

My Nan and Mother used bread and pullet in response to the question "What's for dinner", followed by "You pull one end and I'll pull the other" .
I can also remember my Gran saying, when things needed to happen, "This won't buy the baby a new frock"
I'd always thought these were family sayings because I had never heard them anywhere else, so it's fun seeing that others use them, or similar, too.

lizzypopbottle Sun 15-May-16 13:12:00

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffs_(Royal_East_Kent_Regiment)

I guess 'steady the buffs' was said to the above regiment as they prepared for battle.

Blinko Sun 15-May-16 13:15:18

I still use the shake a stick expression, and always thought it was something to do with training animals. Not sure why, though. And another saying I heard from my grandparents' day: Fine words butter no parsnips. I think that meant that charm alone would not bring in money to buy food. Does anyone still use it, I wonder?

Jalima Sun 15-May-16 13:29:58

She was surprised that it existed as she thought 'Going round the Wrekin' was just a saying fiorentina51 - I could see the Wrekin from just up the road where I grew up - but I don't think I've ever gone round it. How interesting that it has gone out as far as New Zealand!

I've just remembered (it takes time these days grin) that the expression I heard DM use was 'There's not enough to shake a stick at' so presumably there had to be just the right number, not too many according to some posters, but enough according to my mum!

absent I'll be jiggered - that's interesting, I never heard my mother swear and she would probably have been quite amused to find that it was a euphemism for something impolite.

Worlass Sun 15-May-16 13:35:01

My DGC laugh at many of my 'sayings' and claim not to know what they mean. I use the 'shake a stick', 'swing a cat round' and a few of the other ones mentioned on here. Some which have not been mentioned are ' ? o'clock and not a pot washed', which I think is self-explanatory, 'have a larry', which is to be outraged and 'in a pig's eye', expressing doubt at a claim. One which I learned at my Mother's knee, and which always amuses the family is 'run up a shutter', meaning the equivalent of 'get lost' in the modern idiom. I fear I'm Queen of the Cliche'.

sluttygran Sun 15-May-16 13:35:37

My mum used that expression, Blinko , but when I asked for butter on my parsnips, she gave me one of her 'looks'.
My aunt, who was very funny and also very vulgar was talking about a snobbish acquaintance and referred to her as Lady Muck the Duchess of Fuller's Earth, or sometimes if she was in a vitriolic mood - Lady Muck from S**t Hill ! grin

Jalima Sun 15-May-16 13:40:21

What's for dinner? "Three kicks at the pantry door"
I'm thirsty - "Have some Corporation pop"

The version I heard for 'how old are you?' was "I'm as old as my tongue and a bit older than my teeth" - DM's standard reply!

'But Why?' - "because Y 's a crooked letter and Z's not any better"

Jalima Sun 15-May-16 13:42:29

One of MIL's sayings was 'She's all fur coat and no knickers'

poppycat1 Sun 15-May-16 14:33:52

When asked what was for dinner,my mother would say," A rasher of wind and a fried snowball.

Cosafina Sun 15-May-16 14:51:25

Found this for shake a stick at, if it's of any interest:
www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-sha2.htm

Phoebes Sun 15-May-16 16:17:24

If I got a small mark on something I was wearing and showed it to my Mum, she used to say: "A blind man would be glad to see that." And if someone was crying, it was often referred to as "Piping his/her eye" - no idea where that one came from.

trisher Sun 15-May-16 16:40:29

Ours was 'this won't buy the baby a new bonnet". I remember learning that "you've got egg on your face" said to a man meant his flies were open (not explained until i was in my teens). We also used to say "It's snowing down south" when someone's underskirt was showing. Why couldn't we just tell them?

JackyB Sun 15-May-16 17:00:48

We would say "Charlie's dead" if someone's slip was showing. Funnily enough, there was a boy in our class called Charlie, but we never connected it with him.

And my father always used to talk of jam sandwiches such as they were given in the Navy: Two bits of bread jammed together!

annodomini Sun 15-May-16 17:11:39

Sometimes it was 'Charlie's dead'; alternatively, 'It's raining in Paris'. In our part of Scotland a woman who was 'up herself' was 'Lady Muck of Stoorie Castle'.

Spangles1963 Sun 15-May-16 17:17:15

My late DM always made me laugh when she said 'It's cold enough for a walking stick'.

belladonna Sun 15-May-16 17:22:00

Fine words butter no parsnips

Wheniwasyourage Sun 15-May-16 17:31:57

sunseeker, there are a couple of versions of your DH's Avon saying from Glasgow - "I didn't come up the Clyde on a bicycle", or alternatively "on a biscuit", which sounds more exciting.

Sheilasue, my Granny used to say "As old as my tongue and a little older than my teeth" if you asked how old she was, just like Jalima's DM.

DH's expression for flies being open is "selling matches" for which I can offer no explanation grin