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Carpal Tunnel
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Can’t {do that} for toffee!
How familiar is the phrase or a variant to all y’all?
Does anyone know the origin? ~ I haven’t had a mo to check the normal sources, but if any ace researcher has a chance please feel free ;)
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Carpal Tunnel
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Ain' never heard it, mav.
Hope I'll see this on wordorigins.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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I heard it recently for the first time. Some television programme, I think. That's all I can remember of it.
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veteran
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veteran
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Can't [do that] for toffeeMaybe it started out as "coffee", Maverick. As in: Can't do that for all the coffee in Arabia.The English drink Tea so they made a "toffee" out it. History of Coffee: [from Wikipedia] The crop first became popular in Arabia around the 13th century, and Islam's prohibition against alcoholic beverages probably enhanced its popularity. Before 1600, coffee production was a jealously guarded secret, and fertile beans were not found outside Arabia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee#History
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Carpal Tunnel
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aaahhh. I had no idea it might not be obvious. OK Fong, WO it shall be, if required, but I shall have to do my homework first or Liz'll spank me ;)
Coffee > toffee - could be I suppose, though I'd have to check it out for some example.
Anyone else heard this commonplace of my Kent (SE UK) childhood? Dang, I really need to find my OEDipus disk...
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Carpal Tunnel
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I'd never heard the expression before. There are thousands of Google hits, however, for people who can't act, can't sing, can't write, can't dance, can't interface (!), etc., for toffee. A phrase origin ref. here at home doesn't list it. I'm now as curious about the origin as you, Mav'...
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From my childhood in Kent, (S/E UK) a common phrase was “S/he can’t X for toffee” where X was the activity of the moment – substitute almost any verb! I haven’t yet done exhaustive searches but find it’s well represented on right-pond references: can't do sth for toffee British, informal
if you say that someone can't do something for toffee, you mean that they are extremely bad at doing that thing
Annie couldn't act for toffee, but she still got a part in the school play.(from Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms) http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=83528&dict=CALDToffee’s AHD entry gives: ETYMOLOGY: Alteration of taffy
taffy
SYLLABICATION: taf•fy
PRONUNCIATION: tafe (with diacritics missing)
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. taf•fies
1. A sweet, chewy candy of molasses or brown sugar boiled until very thick and then pulled with the hands or by machine until the candy is glossy and holds its shape. 2. Informal Flattery.
ETYMOLOGY: Origin unknown. http://www.bartleby.com/61/77/T0247700.htmlSo if anyone has any comments on this phrase’s currency where you live, or any information on its origins.... I'd be flattered to hear from you!
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Carpal Tunnel
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no useful comments, only that I've never heard it before.
but I do like toffee.
formerly known as etaoin...
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stranger
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I know that expression: 'can't do XXX for toffee'. You don't hear many people use it these days, but it's certainly familiar from my youth and childhood.
I was brought up in the UK, in London and the Midlands. I now live in Manchester, in the NW. Perhaps it's a very British phrase that never travelled.
Can't help much, apart from recognising it, I'm afraid.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Add me to the list of those who've heard it. Maybe from toffee apples as prizes perhaps?
Welcome aboard, Millymax.
Bingley
Bingley
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stranger
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stranger
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Thanks for the welcome, Bingley!
And there's a thought -- 'Toffee Apples'. Are they just a British thing? Do you find them anywhere else? Haven't seen a toffee apple for years.
And what about Bonfire Toffee? Anyone remember that? Dark, bitter brown and wicked for the teeth. My mum reckons that toffee apples were made from dipping apples on a stick into bonfire toffee -- not just any old toffee -- and then left to set. And you got a crisp disc of toffee on the top. (Oh, droooolll...)
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If they're the same thing we call taffy apples we got them here in Left Pondia, too.
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veteran
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"...haven’t had a mo to check the normal sources, but if any ace researcher has a chance please feel free"Maverick! I think I've heard " She can't _____ for toffee" here in the Alabama south. But we have a lot "can't for" phrases down here so I can't be for certain. But what good luck. Today I have a road trip planned to rural Alabama. Can I be your Ace Reasearcher in the whole southern South?  I will report back to headquarters this evening. - themilum, A.R.
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Carpal Tunnel
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I've heard, "He can't XX for squat."
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Pooh-Bah
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“S/he can’t X for toffee” was very common in the UK and I don't think it belonged to any particular region. The expression implies, to me, that you can't do whatever it is well enough even to be given a piece of toffee for it.
I still hear it used but I'm not too sure about the age group using it, it may be falling out of fashion, but perhaps not. Certainly my grandmother used the expression so it has had a good long life.
No proof of the origin, but I suspect that it came from the fairgrounds' habit that became common in the nineteen twenties and thirties, and perhaps before then, of giving a toffee as the minimum prize for simple children's skill challenges. At different skill levels, ages and times it has been a penny or a coconut or, more recently, a goldfish in a water filled polythene bag.
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
The expression implies, to me, that you can't do whatever it is well enough even to be given a piece of toffee for it.
That's a plausible explanation, dxb.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Thnaks for the further responses. Yes, the fairground association seems about right territory. I note a lot of google hits of current use turn up sports reports in the red-tops, so confirming their positioning for a reader with the vocabulary of an average primary school child!
Anyone who has heard this expression, have you come across the "toffeenuts" version?
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
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Toffeenuts? Nope. Aside: Can't say I like the type of caramelised toffee that goes around toffee apples by the way. It tastes burnt to me. But I'll fight for MM's right to drool over it .
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[steps around puddle of drooool] Has anyone heard from our agent in Allybam, or should we send out search parties?
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Carpal Tunnel
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should we send out search parties?
I volunteer! It's bound to be warmer than here, and I've got family where Groucho used to go elephant hunting.
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Carpal Tunnel
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>I volunteer!
ASp, are you prepared to go spelunking and/or ichnologizing?
aside to themilum: if there is a proper verbal form for practicing ichnology, I'd be thrilled to utilize it elsewhere.
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Carpal Tunnel
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> go spelunking hey, this'll be a doddle compared to her notorious, nay infamous, trip to the basement depths of the Museum of Medical Devices! Let's place our trust in the ASp without ersions. Please report in regularly, ASpecial Agent Mouldy
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Carpal Tunnel
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thanx for that, mav! we should leave the hunting of that thread as an exercise for the student.
<hint: see the Hints thread in Information & Announcements for use of Search function>
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Pooh-Bah
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If it means, or is worth, anything, it's a common enough expression in Antipodeaneana ...
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Carpal Tunnel
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 A bit further than just across the river from me...
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