Author Topic: strange expletives passed down  (Read 20654 times)

Offline johncrowner

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strange expletives passed down
« on: Tuesday 05 February 13 19:51 GMT (UK) »
Have you any strange sayings/expletives passed down Through your family? I give, for example the following ( which no one I asked had ever heard). They could originate from Sussex:
'Stap Me!!' (suprise) example: Stap me, boy, you've grown! when addressing growing grandson
'Blind old Kate!' (more of a suprise) You spent how much???!! when asking daughter about new dress
'Old-Fashioned-word-meaning-earth' (used by church goer to express himself when hitting finger with hammer etc.)
....and terms of endearment? my father only ever called me 'Boy'- but then his father-in-law called him that.
Crowhurst:Brooker:Brinkhurst:Turner

Offline Hackstaple

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Re: strange expletives passed down
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 05 February 13 20:05 GMT (UK) »
"Stap me" was used by Gritpypthin in the Goon Show.
Southern or Southan [Hereford , Monmouthshire & Glos], Jenkins, Meredith and Morgan [Monmouthshire and Glos.], Murrill, Damary, Damry, Ray, Lawrence [all Middx. & London], Nethway from Kenn or Yatton. Also Riley and Lyons in South Africa and Riley from St. Helena.
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Offline suey

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Re: strange expletives passed down
« Reply #2 on: Wednesday 06 February 13 20:34 GMT (UK) »

Don't know if the sayings are from Sussex  :-\ but I do remember my old dad and my brother to this day saying Bline' Ole Riley.  Dad was from East Sussex nearer the border with Kent maybe it's Kentish?

Nothing similar in the Dictionary of Sussex Dialect for Stap Me!  maybe Hack's right with that one., although WikiP has it that it originated from a strip cartoon called Just Jake from The Daily Mirror c 1938
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Sussex - Knapp. Nailard. Potten. Coleman. Pomfrey. Carter. Picknell
Greenwich/Woolwich. - Clowting. Davis. Kitts. Ferguson. Lowther. Carvalho. Pressman. Redknap. Argent.
Hertfordshire - Sturgeon. Bird. Rule. Claxton. Taylor. Braggins

Offline johncrowner

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Re: strange expletives passed down
« Reply #3 on: Thursday 07 February 13 07:48 GMT (UK) »
yes, it was E. Sussex. The expression also used by dad was' Blimey o reilly' Also: 'You'll do me, boy' when said boy did something stupid!
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Offline Wiggy

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Re: strange expletives passed down
« Reply #4 on: Thursday 07 February 13 08:07 GMT (UK) »
I've seen 'Stap me' in books - but don't ask me which ones right now - but it is an expression I've heard before - I think in sailor slang.   :-\

You'll do me, boy/girl - when used in our family meant the opposite - praise for someone as having done/ been good.

Wiggy :)
Gaunt, Ransom, McNally, Stanfield, Kimberley. (Tasmania)
Brown, Johnstone, Eskdale, Brand  (Dumfriesshire,  Scotland)
Booth, Bruerton, Deakin, Wilkes, Kimberley
(Warwicks, Staffords)
Gaunt (Yorks)
Percy, Dunning, Hyne, Grigg, Farley (Devon, UK)
Duncan (Fife, Devon), Hugh, Blee (Cornwall)
Green, Mansfield, (Herts)
Cavenaugh, Ransom (Middlesex)
 

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Offline suey

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Re: strange expletives passed down
« Reply #5 on: Thursday 07 February 13 08:23 GMT (UK) »

I see today a school in the North of England has asked parents to encourage their children to speak 'properly' whatever that means.  They don't like phrases such as gizzit 'ere and nought.

Coming from Sussex where our regional dialect is almost a thing of the past I am disgusted at this head teacher.  Surely the school can encourage the use of the queens english in school but also allow the children the use of their own language and to keep their sense of identity.

John, if you're interested *mazon have copies of A Dictionary of the Sussex Dialect, 
All census lookups are Crown Copyright from www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Sussex - Knapp. Nailard. Potten. Coleman. Pomfrey. Carter. Picknell
Greenwich/Woolwich. - Clowting. Davis. Kitts. Ferguson. Lowther. Carvalho. Pressman. Redknap. Argent.
Hertfordshire - Sturgeon. Bird. Rule. Claxton. Taylor. Braggins

Offline Emjaybee

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Re: strange expletives passed down
« Reply #6 on: Thursday 07 February 13 09:32 GMT (UK) »
Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs
All my eye and Mary Martin
Up in Annie's room behind the clock
Joe Soap from the roundhouse
The middle one of them two where he goos upstairs to get down into the cellar
Come yer goo thur like anybody elses dog
Lost a pound and found a penny
Beard Voyce, Scrivens in Worcestershire

Offline Skoosh

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Re: strange expletives passed down
« Reply #7 on: Thursday 07 February 13 11:28 GMT (UK) »
Crivvens jings & help ma Boab!

Skoosh.

Offline JMStrachan

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Re: strange expletives passed down
« Reply #8 on: Thursday 07 February 13 12:31 GMT (UK) »
My Yorkshire grandmother was another one who used:
Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs
All my eye and Mary Martin
Lost a pound and found a penny

Another I remember is "doesn't know if he's Arthur or Martha" for someone who was what we'd today say was getting their knickers in a twist.

To my Scottish relatives, being the youngest child of a youngest child, I was always "wee Robert's wee bairn".
AYRSHIRE - Strachan, McCrae, Haddow, Haggerty, Neilson, Alexander
ABERDEENSHIRE (Cruden and Longside) - Fraser, Hay, Logan, Hutcheon or Hutchison, Sangster
YORKSHIRE (Worsbrough) - Green, Oxley, Firth, Cox, Rock
YORKSHIRE (Royston and Carlton) - Senior, Simpson, Roydhouse, Hattersley