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For some reason this morning I used the British phrase, "I bet he's not short of a bob or two" when speaking with my wife. She did not understand this at all, being Japanese.

It means "he must be pretty rich", coming from the shilling coin that was nicknamed a bob, and went out of use in 1974 when the UK changed to decimal currency. The shilling then became worth 5 New Pence and was generally called a 5P piece as we still call them today.

This probably means that no-one under the age of 40 would ever have used the word "bob" even if they were British. And, in fact, my daughter, who is only 16, did not understand this expression when I tried it on her, though she guessed from context it might be something to do with money.

This made me feel old and sad, but it also made me interested in what expressions from different countries are based on old things that are vanishing from daily life, and whether they are going out of use as the culture changes.

For instance, will the expression "I've got it taped" -- I've learned it well -- vanish because all modern computer and video recorders used discs or solid state storage.

Against that, there are many expressions still widely used in Britain that come from the days of sailing ships; "to know the ropes", "plain sailing", "three sheets to the wind", "if we all pull together" (this actually may come from rowing), and so on. While people still go sailing, it is a minority activity, so I don't think it can be the reason that these phrases are still so widely used. Perhaps it is because they are widely used in literature.

What examples do you have of interesting colloquial expressions in danger, or that are still unaccountably going strong? What new modern phrases are being invented to enrich human language?

 Kilkrazy wrote:
For some reason this morning I used the British phrase, "I bet he's not short of a bob or two" when speaking with my wife. She did not understand this at all, being Japanese.

It means "he must be pretty rich", coming from the shilling coin that was nicknamed a bob, and went out of use in 1974 when the UK changed to decimal currency. The shilling then became worth 5 New Pence and was generally called a 5P piece as we still call them today.

This probably means that no-one under the age of 40 would ever have used the word "bob" even if they were British. And, in fact, my daughter, who is only 16, did not understand this expression when I tried it on her, though she guessed from context it might be something to do with money.

This made me feel old and sad, but it also made me interested in what expressions from different countries are based on old things that are vanishing from daily life, and whether they are going out of use as the culture changes.

For instance, will the expression "I've got it taped" -- I've learned it well -- vanish because all modern computer and video recorders used discs or solid state storage.

Against that, there are many expressions still widely used in Britain that come from the days of sailing ships; "to know the ropes", "plain sailing", "three sheets to the wind", "if we all pull together" (this actually may come from rowing), and so on. While people still go sailing, it is a minority activity, so I don't think it can be the reason that these phrases are still so widely used. Perhaps it is because they are widely used in literature.

What examples do you have of interesting colloquial expressions in danger, or that are still unaccountably going strong? What new modern phrases are being invented to enrich human language?

Not Short of a bob or two? My dad says it all the time

Oh I've got loads of them since I've moved from Ireland to Scotland. Just a wee hop across the water, but it might as well be a separate language at times (and it is, if you come from Aberdeen). And I've said a few ones myself that no one got.

'We were up the walls today'. Irish phrase meaning we were extremely busy. Very few people over here had hear of it.
'We went to the chipper last night'. Chipper being a generic term for any chips and burger joint. Over here in Scotland, a 'chipper' is a carpenter, and a 'chippy' is where you go for chips and a burger.
'He was very bold today'. Bold in British slang means assertive and courageous - a bold explorer. In Ireland, bold is interchangeable with naughty. I've had a lot of funny looks for this one.
All your cupboards, drawers, chests and so on - in Ireland, you use the term 'press' for them all. Mrs Deadnight is continually annoyed with me for this one.

Probably loads more, I'll try and remember them.

Is it a floppy disk, or is it a Save Icon?

I still say that I taped something off the telly when I really saved it to my digital box thing.

I still buy records even when they are CD's (I haven't moved to the whole paying money to download music paradigm).

My wargame figures are still referred to as "lead".

See, I've picked up loads of these off my parents, so I can't really speak for myself here, but I'd agree that those phrases are certainly being less and less recognised now.

My mother used to always say "it's a fur piece that way". I'd like to know where that came from. I'm trying to bring back RAD

Being born in East London half of what gets said by my dad or me is slang. Not a problem for him as he was a lorry driver. For me working in the city it can be a bit of a problem wilhen conversing with foreign colleagues not so much for most Brits. Would you Adam and Eve it.

But language does develop over time, it's part of the strength of English that we don't get hung up on it....like say the French seem to.

Of course if anyone deviates from standard punctuation then they will be vilified. To right an all.

Fetch will never happen.

Well, kids today are using the phrase "watch Netflix and chill" to mean "let's have sex". So...I'd say the older phrases have a lot going for them.

You want a term that isn't close to its original meaning, look at the word "cigarette". Depending on who you talk to, you'll get "cigarette", "bundle of sticks", "homosexual", or the current "a-hole".

South Park taught me that "cigarette" means "a-hole". Not a term for being homosexual. Not anymore, anyway.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Well...I forgot about autocorrect. Blah. The word I tried to put was "f*g". Apologies, mods, not trying to actually work around the filter, just showing the different meanings this one word has (as autocorrect changed it to one of its at-least 4 meanings).

Oddly, I occasionally refer to money as "bob", even though I never used the old money first hand. I don't think it's uncommon for idioms to persist even after their origin is forgotten. There are quite a lot of horse and farming related idioms still in use, even though horses and farming probably aren't as mainstream as they used to be.

I often use deliberately anachronistic phrases to confound and delight.

My personal favorites are "Cat's Pajamas" and "The Fuzz".

Do people still "get crunk"?

 d-usa wrote:
Do people still "get crunk"?

I oft time become crunk, usually as a side effect of getting tipsy. Usually in the club, along with everybody else there.

'Full steam ahead' is quite a good and very commonly used one.
Steam power is now pretty obsolete and quite slow but I can see this being commonly used for years to come.
'Put it into overdrive' is attempting to supercede it though, it's only a matter of time.

There are some that I wish I knew the origin of, and others I hear so infrequently that I wonder if I misremembered them. But then they pop up and I know they existed.

"I bet he does/doesn't know the name of his butcher." (the man looks cold)

"Gone arse over tit." (tripped over)

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
There are some that I wish I knew the origin of, and others I hear so infrequently that I wonder if I misremembered them. But then they pop up and I know they existed.

"I bet he does/doesn't know the name of his butcher." (the man looks cold)

...

I haven't heard that one, though "Fit as a butcher's dog" perhaps comes from a similar background.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:


"Gone arse over tit." (tripped over)

That one actually makes sense though.

 Buttery Commissar wrote:

"I bet he does/doesn't know the name of his butcher." (the man looks cold)

I'd imagine this is more to do with being well (warmly) dressed, fat and therefore affluent.
Meat has always been expensive so to be on first name terms with your butcher implies regular purchases and therefore affluence.

 Alex Kolodotschko wrote:

 Buttery Commissar wrote:

"I bet he does/doesn't know the name of his butcher." (the man looks cold)

I'd imagine this is more to do with being well (warmly) dressed, fat and therefore affluent.
Meat has always been expensive so to be on first name terms with your butcher implies regular purchases and therefore affluence.

I look at it as the type of person that cares nothing for anyone or anything beyond minimal necessary relationships and makes him a rather cold (uncaring) individual instead of one who warms to people and cares anything about them.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
There are some that I wish I knew the origin of, and others I hear so infrequently that I wonder if I misremembered them. But then they pop up and I know they existed.

"I bet he does/doesn't know the name of his butcher." (the man looks cold)

"Gone arse over tit." (tripped over)

Where I grew up in Maine, it was similar, but was "ass over tea kettle".

If things are, "ducky", that means they're going great.


"Putting the old make" to someone means having a heavy make out session.

Yeah, we're going to need a bit more context here Buttery.

Honestly it's just an expression about someone looking cold/shivery.
Variant, "Get thee to a better butcher."

Ones I don't hear nearly often enough:

"I need to see a man about a dog." (I've got to leave)

"You could ride bare arse to London on it." (Object/opinion is blunt)

"Colder than a well-digger's belt buckle."

 Kilkrazy wrote:

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
There are some that I wish I knew the origin of, and others I hear so infrequently that I wonder if I misremembered them. But then they pop up and I know they existed.

"I bet he does/doesn't know the name of his butcher." (the man looks cold)

...

I haven't heard that one, though "Fit as a butcher's dog" perhaps comes from a similar background.

I thought that was an advertising slogan (for Butcher's dog food), but the internet doesn't entirely agree with me. Perhaps the Butchers Dog Food people chose the name based on the saying.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
Honestly it's just an expression about someone looking cold/shivery.
Variant, "Get thee to a better butcher."

Ones I don't hear nearly often enough:

"I need to see a man about a dog." (I've got to leave)

I've always heard that meaning "I need to go to the lavatory", rather than just leaving.


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Is a well-digger's belt buckle as cold as a witch's t*t?

The butchers dog comes from the fact that a butcher could feed his beloved pooch meat scraps, most people could barely afford meat for themselves, so the dogs were well feed. I'm fairly certain that Butchers took that slogan for themselves.

I think that expressions will remain as long as they are interesting. My dad uses some from the forties and fifties, so I use a few of them too. I know of a few bob, and even speak a bit of cockney rhyming slang too, in case the bobbies are around.

Butchers the company definitely named themselves after the expression.

And "man about a dog" refers to betting and dog tracks, so it's not usually about the toilet here. '
Just business you need attend.

My favorite is still 'the whole nine yards'. Means to refer to every bit of the subject or to do everything that the subject can entail. Comes from WW2 dogfighting when a fighter plane (might have been the Mustang, might have been a Spitfire, I don't remember) had nine yards of ammunition in the wings. Giving something the whole nine yards meant shooting every last bullet out of your guns at it. Usually constitutes overkill.

Yeah, lots of them come from naval and military backgrounds. Those places are institutions with sayings being passed down forever through the ranks. They won't be going anywhere soon, unless, peace.

'Toeing the Line' is a good military one that is often used misused.
Many, perhaps the majority, wrongly use 'Towing the line', meaning to pitch in, to help out or put effort in.
The actual meaning is to put your toe on the line, be called forward, 'step up to the plate' or volunteer.
Both phrases make sense in most contexts but there are subtle differences which is probably why the misuse is so common.

I've always heard toeing the line as literally poking your toe at the line between right and wrong. Moral gray area type deal. Never heard it as a volunteer sort of thing but that does make sense.

Somewhat related:

The Weegie Words: you help us list 100 words that prove you come from Glasgow

All the British ones i know pretty much, i'm only 29.

Chippy is certainly a carpenter.
Sparky an electrician.

How about:
"No flies on you"
-means alert/ aware/ doesn't miss information/ smart

"Sticky situation"
Kinda catch22 situation. / hard to decide

"Goes around, comes around"
Also meaning as above partly:
"Get his cumupance"
--soone spell that for me!!