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I know we've sort of hit on this before in different ways (the latest being Marianna's Spanish proverbs) but hey -- I'm bored and no one's posting.
What are some of y'all's favorite regionalisms? My favorite all-purpose Southernism is the use of "like to" to mean "almost," as in I like to died! *
---
*post-edit: this is only used in the past tense, btw.
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I like to died
Must be the to goes with the like elsewise we got us a past tense infinitive.
Around here (Upstate NY) people say "So don't I" when they are expressing agreement/solidarity with another, as in:
"I really like Steven Spielberg movies."
"So don't I." This may be your onliest warning, E.
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Re: This may be your onliest warning, E.
yeah, well a warning like that, and a token might get you someplace...
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this is a good post-- but unless you have traveled-- you don't realize that something is a regionalism!
a local radio commercial has been mocking the way most NYer's? (any one else?) say caramel--
cara mel has a "boston a" for the first A(cara as in cara mia-) - but most NYer's say car mel with a much "harder" a .. I have traveled-- but never went looking for caramels... how do you all say it?
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Funny you should mention it, OT! Just heard a commercial today (same one?) where it was pronounced "kair-a-mel." I've always said "car-ml" for the candy - like the city in California but with the accent on the 1st syllable. Unless we're ordering creme caramel - yum! - that's a whole 'nother pronunciation. Whoops - are we slipping into a food thread here?
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re: how do I say, "caramel"? Just like "camel", with an r and a schwa thrown in.
so you have an the first a soft (as in camel), an r, and an other vowel before the mel-- not quite Kair a mel or Cara mel but not car mel.(with no hint of a vowel between the r and m) ---and while this is sweet talk--no, not a food thread!
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I just say "camel" and let people decide which kind, "creme camel" being such a delicacy 'round these parts...  [winning-the-prize-for-most-nonsensical-post-but-I'm-all-nonsensical-today e]
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When in Hawai'i : the locals' greeting is "Howzit?" for "How is it,' "How is it going?" "How are you?" etc.
Don't hear it much anywhere else but it's a dead give away for who is local or Kama'aina and who is not.
In New England : "How's it goin'?" is common. Which ties it nicely as the early missionaries to Hawai'i were New Englanders.
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Two that I've used today are:
Nobody home but us chickens, and
Keep yer cotton-pickin' hands off.
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<<and a token might get you someplace...>>
...where*do the sun shine, Helen?
A regionalism in the apartment next door is "fa-fa-FAbulous," meaning "that's nice"
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enthusiast
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My grandfather hung a sign in fake German by his computer area that had something like like keep the cotten piking hands off.
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Y'a les deux yeux dans graisse de binnes.
He has both eyes in bean fat. Ooo...that suffers in the translation. It means that the person is all moon eyed, love struck over somebody.
One very useful expression to use when you have guests that just won't leave. You know the ones, it's two in the morning, your kids are asleep on the sofa, you have your P.J.s on, the coldcream is on your face and the curlers are in your hair, and still they're not getting the hint..."one last hit of coffee before you leave?"
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bel offers: allo, ma choupette!Y'a les deux yeux dans graisse de binnes.
He has both eyes in bean fat. yuck. and *ouch*. brings new meaning to the concept of love being blind. i love your gentle reminder to your guests... in our house, it's a bit different. see, when my husband tires of our company, he simply leaves. seriously. then i have to make excuses for him, and beg off on my own.  wow, that was the most completely nonword post i've ever offered.
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Down in Florida they've coined a new word for "vote"...but they haven't figured out what it is yet! Yartical, I'm sure...but I couldn't help myself!
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How do I (and many other USA Southerners) pronounce "caramel"? "Cara" as in "CARAdea" and "mel" as "mul". Many persons who say "Car" (as in "automobile") "mel" are thus often identified as having linguistic roots elsewhere. Others may not agree with my impression in this matter.
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belMarduk asks her guests "one last hit of coffee before you leave?"How about "Let's go to bed, these people must be wanting to leave"? 
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"Let's go to bed, these people must be wanting to leave"?Good one, Marianna! I like that! BelMarduk, how delightful to have you back!!! You too, O Noble One. I say CARE-uh-mel, but CAR-uh-dee-uh. Is that incorrect, caradea?
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FWIW*, I'm with Jackie on "CARE-uh-mel."
And I'd say "Carr(trill)-uh-DAY-uh.
DAY, me say day-o... err... never mind. Back to work.
*Ænigma would have it [gab] (??)
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I say CARE-uh-mel, but CAR-uh-dee-uh.
Is that incorrect, caradea?
well, i'd have to defer to Scribbler's pronunciation, for obvious reasons, but FWIW i say it as car[trill]-uh-DAY-uh, just as Anna does. OTOH, i don't know the first thing about latin. but on the OTHER other hand, i'm quite certain ASp© does, so now i'm *really* confused.
as for caramel, for me it depends on the context. i would speak of a CAHR-muhl apple, but hot caramel would most definitely be CARE-uh-mel.
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One of the many Pennsylvania Dutch expressions in use here in Berks County is "the root beer [or whatever] is all." This means, of course, that the root beer is all GONE, but we just don't bother with the last word. We get all kinds of flack from non-PA Dutchies over this-- my brother has had to endure countless talkings-to from his fiancée, a New Jersey native. I have to admit that this expression never struck me as incorrect or odd until Vicki (aforementioned fiancée) pointed it out. It was just something we said, and everyone understood it.
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In Indonesian keras kepala literally hard head means stubborn rather than what we would mean by hard-headed.
The expression ada udang di balik batu means there's a prawn behind the stone. Anyone care to guess what that means?
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i liked Max's idea-- but my first thought was
there is more (to it) than meets the eye.
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prawn behind the stone"Love is blind"? "Faith moves mountains" if the stone is moving. "You can't tell a book by its cover" but that is the delight of proverbs first time, many are ambiguous. Rod
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Rapunzel, thanks for mentioning the use of "all". I'm so used to it that it never occurred to me. I'll never forget being in a diner on Rte. 30 outside Lancaster (near Intercourse) when the couple at the next table asked the waitress (in a Southern accent) for shoo-fly pie, and she said, "The shoo-fly is all." The expression of bafflement on their faces was hilarious and I'm afraid I made a spectacle of myself.
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I don't know how local this is, but it always cracks me up when someone announces that so and so is "getting on my last nerve."
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In case anyone wants to think about it first: there's a prawn behind the stone means he/she has an ulterior motive. Helen was pretty near so perhaps its less opaque than I thought.
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Around these parts (Lancashire, UK), there are many odd dialect expressions, but my favourite has to be the phrase used when people give the exact right money for something and tell the cashier, "It's nobut just." (pronounced "knob-but joost".)
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Rhu is Now't (naught still used?) As in It's now't to do with me! { It's nothing to do with me- or it not my doing..} My parent said naught as Nah't the aught sounding like -- "you really aughta try it.."
i have seen several films set in Lancashire-- most in this country come complete with subtitles.. but i find they are not needed. Kestrel for Knave was a favorite from long, long ago..
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Yes, Helen, both now't and ow't are in use round here - pronounced as they are spelt here.
It isn't quite so common among the youngsters - but even they do use it a bit. The older folk use the expression exclusively, especially in the villages.
Incidentally, I knew that I was accepted in my village, even though I'm an off-comer, when one or two of the locals, perhaps some ten years younger than I, called me, "fayther!" - an ironic, but affectionate term.
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Interesting that this expression also exists in German: Die Schokolade ist alle, meaning that the chocolate is all gone! Although it's slang here too. and it would be a catastrophe if the chocolate was really all gone!! 
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Yes, Max, the Pennsylvania Dutch language which is still spoken (by fewer people every year) is a low-German dialect. There is also the peculiar form of English spoken in Dutch areas of Pennsylvania (chiefly Lancaster and Berks Counties) which is heavily influenced by Germanic word order and other syntactical features, also peculiar words deriving from German. Perhaps the best known example of PA Dutch-English is a line from a Broadway show, "Throw Mama from the train a kiss." In our family, the example usually given is "Throw the cow over the fence some hay," and "Outen the light."
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I heard "Put the out on the light" in Lancaster/Lidditz area. rather than "outen the light.
On English dialect subject : Still use Anyroad for Anyway?
I heard it around my grandparents' home.
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anyroad-- yes-- never thought about it.. but i use it all the time..
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Anyroad sounds Scouse or Lancastrian to me.Rhuby?
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Anyroad sounds Scouse or Lancastrian to me.
Fairly common throughout UK, but suggests Birmingham to me, and possibly futher north. Often said as "anyroad up".
Rod
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Not certain where "anyroad" originates, except that it is definitely a Northern expression - Yorks and Lancs, rather than Scouse or Geordie, I think.
But I've heard it in all parts of the land and in every conceivable accent over the past few years. In my youth, it was the stereotypical sort of speech from a "stage northerner."
I found myself using another odd dialect phrase the other day to describe a neighbours son who has a very high opinion of his own abilities which is, unfortunately, not borne out by his actual performance. When my wife retailed the latest assininity of this young man, I retorted, "Oh, well, what do you expect - he's all mouth and trousers."
Now, I have not the slightest idea of its provenance, but this was a common expression in the part of London where I grew up. I've never heard it used outside the Metropolis. Is anyone else familiar with it?
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I know what Yorks, Lancs and Geordie refer to, but what's/where's "Scouse"?
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I know what Yorks, Lancs and Geordie refer to, but what's/where's "Scouse"?Scouse, of Liverpool, the Liverpudlian dialect Scouser, a Liverpudlian. A language all of its own, like Euskara  Edit: All mouth and trousers. General throughout UK I think, though I've no idea where it originated. Some sites suggest the meaning arises from the implication that there is nothing useful under the trousers, any bulge is just the cut of the cloth. Rod
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Thanks, Rod - I had an intuition that the "trousers" bit had sexual implications - much London slang does have!
And "scouse" AnnaS - correctly identified as Liverpudlian by m'learned friend - is the name of an old local dish, which was a form of stew containing large anounts of potato and minute amounts of meat (the latter was optional in times of extreme poverty) which was ubiquitous in Liverpool in the late C18 and throughout the C19. The name comes from the Scandinavian, "scause" which means (more or less) "stew."
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Per M-W OnLine "a sailor's dish of stewed or baked meat with vegetables and hardtack"
Heard in an old sea chanty "He gave them a bowl of American hash, and called it Liverpool scouse."
Oder so etwas.
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You're always learning something in here...
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always learning something in here
Some of it is even true.
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is the OED at sea on this one? it claims scouse to be a shortening of lobscouse, which is in turn given as "Of obscure origin".
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When I was working in Norway (ah! many years ago!) "lobscause" was on the menu in the cafeteria most days of the week - it was, indeed a variety of stew, although I totally disremember the ingredients.
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Rhuby totally disremembers the ingredients
And parbly a good thang, too!
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and scouse is still popular as a dish in 'Pool - I think it is particularly in the tradition of the Irish Liverpudlians, of whom one was telling me last week his mum still makes scouse about once a week on average.
btw, an example of the typical Mancunian/Scouse divide came in the form of a lorrydriver's joke, also heard last week: "Why's a scouser like Batman? - 'cause he can niver go out without robin'!"
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Well, 'scouse me for comin' in a mite late, but I didn't know what scouse was, either. Thanks, everybody. Cute joke, Aunt mav--I did get Mancunian. (I think.)
Um--revealing another quirk of my strange mind, when I read the word lobscouse, I was for some reason put in mind of the word gobsmacked...
tsuwm, when you asked whether the OED was "at sea", were you thinking that lobscouse is lobster stew?
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at sea - A sailor's dish consisting of meat stewed with vegetables and ship's biscuit, or the like.
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Man·cu·ni·an (măn-kyū'nē-ən, -kyūn'yən)
adj.
Of or relating to Manchester, England.
n.
A native or inhabitant of Manchester, England.
[From Latin Mancunium, Manchester, of Celtic origin.]
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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I was interested in checking this to find another (comparatively rare) example of a Celtic word subsumed into Latin and thence into English, so thanks for getting me to look, Jackie!
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This from my Alabama-born grandmother via my somewhat-cosmopolitan mom:
"Honey, I don't care if it harelips the Pope!"
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In my region... I am from central/north jersey... I use the word mad to mean something quite different... I use it to mean very or a lot....
ex.. This food is mad good. OR That's mad different.
It is a regionalism that doesn't seem very distinct... some people use it, others don't... most people that use it outside of my region are black, but I am white... and I am nothing near the type denoted "hood" which is basically a person who dress and style is influence by the rap scene. I like punk and hardcore music... Outside of my area people think that I am strange or a "wannabe" but it is perfectly normal where I am from.
Later
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Just heard from a friend who lives in Maine and am reminded of the use of "wicked"
Examples :
This pie is wicked good."
"His new lobstah boat is wicked fast"
"She is one wicked awesome woman."
"This thread is wicked interestin'."
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This pie is wicked good.
For may father, who grew up in suburban Boston, if the pie was extra special, he would have said "this pie is wicked pissah!" A "wicked pissah" being something really great. I'm guessing "pissah" started out as the Bostonian pronunciation of "pisser", but he says it was spelled with the "ah".
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I'm guessing "pissah" started out as the Bostonian pronunciation of "pisser", but he says it was spelled with the "ah".
....wicked good guess, Flatlander.
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This isn't so much a local verbal expression, but a physical one. If you are a troll, in other words, you live under the bridge(Lower Michigan), you use your hand as a map of Michigan to point to where you live. I ,personally, was born at the base of the pinky-ring fingers(Traverse City)but now live straight downhill from there, just above the wrist(Kalamazoo).
consuelo
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A nice collection of regionalisms was published in the late 1980's, titled "Like We Say Back Back Home". My copy seems to have "migrated", but one I remember was, "She's as loose as a bucket of soot."
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Dear Keiva, Welcome to the Board ... Delighted to have a new entry into the discussion. Do stay with us. (book) titled "Like We Say Back Back Home". ....I remember was, "She's as loose as a bucket of soot."your post reminded me of a few more in similar vein: "Dumb as a bag full of rocks" "Sharp as a bowling ball" That's all I can remember off top of my head. Anyone? Again, Welcome!!!
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How do I (and many other USA Southerners) pronounce "caramel"?How do you pronounce it at all when the damned stuff has your jaw glued shut? How do y'all pronounce "pecan?" As a kid in South Carolina, I heard, "PEE-can." all I hear now is "puh-KAHN." Where I now live, in Oregon, they used to grow filberts. Now they get hazlenuts off the same trees. Go figure...
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One of the books I'm currently reading is the Booker Prizewinning 'English passengers' by Matthew Kneale. Here's a fascinating passage of Manx invective (page 32):
"We called Gawne some names that morning, I can tell you. Scrissag. Scrawl. Sleetchy old scraper. Hibernator. Castletown snot. Fat muck of a fritlag. Big slug, all sitting on his shillings with his little crab of a wife, snurly and high as if they thought they were somebody."
There's a whole heap more in the Glossary as well.
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 819 |
Scrissag. Scrawl. Sleetchy old scraper. Hibernator. Castletown
snot. Fat muck of a fritlag.Ahh, so this is the TRUE source of Jabberwocky!
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605 |
A southernism used in a seminar this week: "Never slap a man who's chawin' tobacco."
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460
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I've now finished 'English passengers' so, before I return it to the library, I thought I'd share with you from the book's glossary some words describing types of character, all of them viewed with disapproval.
Smooth, slippery people: creeper, click, clinker, cluke, crooil, reezagh, shliawn, slebby, sleetch.
Showy, boastful people: branchy, filosher, feroash, gizzard, grinndher, high, neck, snurly, stinky, uplifted.
Large blundering people: Bleih, bleb, dawd, flid, gaping, glashan, gogaw, gorm, hessian, kinawn, looban, ommidhan, slampy, sthahl, walloper.
Peevish people, especially small scolding women: borragh, coughty, crabby, cretchy, corodank, gob-mooar, gonnag, grangan, grinnder, grouw, huffy, mhinyag, pootchagh, scrissy, scrowl, smullagh, spiddagh, targe.
By the way, it's a fascinating book and a great read!
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Peevish people, especially small scolding women: gob-mooar
Intreresting ... gob, in Irish, means mouth.
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Posts: 3,065
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 3,065 |
Gob is also coarse slang for mouth in England, most often heard in the expression "Shut your gob."
There is also a type of boiled sweet called a gobstopper.
Bingley
Bingley
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Gob is also coarse slang for mouth in England
or spit, and gobbing is spitting. Not the Nine O'clock news did a take off of the TV soccer competition "Goal of the Month" showing soccer players spitting (as they frequently do), and called it "Gob of the Month".
French has the words "gober" to swallow whole, and "gobemouche" = literally a fly swallower, someone who stands around with their mouth open. My POD gives gob (spit) from the French goube= a mouthful.
And gobble comes from the same root.
Rod
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Joined: Aug 2001
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Sparteye and I could use this list in it's entirety to describe a sloth on the bball board. Just what is the crux of the book, English Passengers??
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 131
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Posts: 131 |
A hated local expression is the way overused 'over yonder'. Never ask where something is in central Alabama....
I do like the 'It's slap your momma good!' expression.
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Joined: Aug 2001
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As nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs
As busy as a one-legged man in an ass-kickin' contest
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 2,605
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2001
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As nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.
As busy as a one-legged man in an ass-kickin' contest.
Love em! (I've heard the former as a long-tailed cat). Also:
As nervous as a reverend in a cathouse.
As busy as a one-armed wallpaper-hanger.
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Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 131
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Another local word that makes me chuckle is 'youngun'. I recently had a baby and frequently get asked 'how's the youngun' doin'?'. While growing up in Illinois I never thought I'd have a 'youngun'.
There are a couple of odd terms that I've learned since working in manufacturing realm....don't know if they are southernisms or just plain slang.
1) Pisser - word used for a trim squirt (a high pressure stream of water used to cut a trim off a paper machine.
2) Peckerhead - word for a junction box on a motor (this is where the wires from the motor connect to the pump)
Nothing like being female in a male-dominated industry surrounded by peckerheads.
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Hi Chemeng: Without giving away too much of the plot, the "English passengers" are three men travelling to Tasmania in the mid-1800s because one of them (a clergyman) believes the Garden of Eden was actually in Tasmania. The novel is narrated by some 20 characters of whom one is the ship's captain who, like his crew, is a Manxman.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
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Gob is also coarse slang for mouth in England
and in northern Ireland (and also Glasgow, I think) a foul-mouthed person is sometimes referred to as "a gob-shite."
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As nervous as a reverend in a cathouse.
Or, as I've heard it recently, the converse:
Sweating like a hooker in church.
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