When I was a wee one in a Catholic school, the Irish nuns would box our ears and say "Woe betide!" I did not know what betide meant, but I sure experienced the WOA!"

And the word "Wretch" was probably used a lot as well, at least it is in school movies with nuns.


WELCOME VEGIRARD

would box our ears

Always found to box ears a very funny expression. To me it meant just taking the ears off to put them in a little box.

Betide - to happen to; come to; befall I thought the be- would have more of an impact but no, it's pretty much the same as tide much disappointment on looking it up in my OED

To me it meant just taking the ears off to put them in a little box.

Like your Dutch painter, van Gogh.

Like your Dutch painter, van Gogh.

Gniffel.

it's pretty much the same as tide much disappointment on looking it up in my OED

I was expecting more too. Thinking of something like. "beware"

"Betide, betide! The gruesome hordes are at our thresholds."

Gniffel

What a wonderful word. I like how its English gloss mimics it:

gniffel
snigger

Fricatives swapping places with stops and liquids rhoticized.

My father was a fan of Professional Boxing. I knew
what boxing ears meant. And he meant it as well.

its a little word I'd forgotten...from my childhood too.
Though I'm sure I was a good girl and never needed 'boxing around the ears'.

now that's a great sentence!!

Uh-huh!