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SkulduggeryGOLD Member
Pirate Pixie Crew Captain
8,428 posts
Location: Wales


Posted:
A person at work said today "Oh, he's not happy. They've sent him to Coventry"

they meant by that that the person wasn't being talked to by everyone else.

Where did that saying come from?

Why Coventry?

There must be loads of sayings out there.... where do they all come from?

Heres another "Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs"
This means the person is suprised by something someone has told them, such as

Man A : I saw a monkey eating a ferret in the high street today.
ManB : Well I'll got to the foot of our stairs! Did you really?

Where do all these saying come from and just how local are some of them?

Feed me Chocolate!!! Feed me NOW!


DominoSILVER Member
UnNatural Scientist - Currently working on a Breville-legged monkey
757 posts
Location: Bath Uni or Shrewsbury, UK


Posted:
"It's cold enough to frees the balls off a brass monkey"

A monkey was a trolley used by the navy to shuttle cannon balls around between cannons, in very cold weather the balls or trolley (not sure which) would contact - remember that in physics? - the neatly stacked cannon balls would loose their pattern and the balls would roll off.

"Son of a gun"

Back to ships. The safest place to give birth on an old ship was between the cannons (guns). On long voyages it could be hard to be sure who the father was so the baby would be known as a son of a gun.

"Nitty Gritty"

Refers to the lice (nit) filled grime that built up at the bottom of slave ships

Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can beat the world into submission.


SupermanBRONZE Member
member
829 posts
Location: Houston, Texas, USA


Posted:
"Then I hear the best thing to do is feed them to pigs. You got to starve the pigs for a few days, then the sight of a chopped-up body will look like curry to a pisshead. You gotta shave the heads of your victims, and pull the teeth out for the sake of the piggies' digestion. You could do this afterwards, of course, but you don't want to go sievin' through pig sh*t, now do you?

They will go through bone like butter. You need at least sixteen pigs to finish the job in one sitting, so be wary of any man who keeps a pig farm. They will go through a body that weighs 200 pounds in about eight minutes. That means that a single pig can consume two pounds of uncooked flesh every minute. Hence the expression,

"as greedy as a pig".

is that the real reason?? i dont care..i love that movie

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear--not absence of fear.


- Mark Twain


matty390GOLD Member
member
71 posts
Location: wakefield yorks uk


Posted:
wowdidnt now about the grave thing!!

'full board' and 'half board' in hotels origionaly came from 18th century ships when the sailors were given a board with their meals on passengers on the ship that didnt work were given half a board for a meal instead

matt

_Clare_BRONZE Member
Still wiggling
5,967 posts
Location: Belfast, Northern Ireland (UK)


Posted:
Superman... is that from Hannibal?

Cos it's gross. Yeuck.

Getting to the other side smile


GazzaBeeBRONZE Member
PoiBoi
627 posts
Location: Manchester, UK


Posted:
Wow... I never knew about any of those!! How majorly interesting... Did you know if you wanted to use the proverb 'killing two birds with one stone' in German, you would in fact say 'Catching 2 flies with one clap of the frogs mouth!' How biazarre!

Stuck in my Poi comfort zone....


ChumpyBRONZE Member
member
78 posts
Location: In between you and that spliff, United Kingdom


Posted:
I had to double check the thread to make sure it wasn't already on here.
Well the origins of everyones favourite swear word....and I'm very very sorry to the mods and general public. No offense intended by this...but this is too good not to share....the word 'f*ck' comes from years ago when you had to ask the kings permission for a baby. If you were granted permission, you went home and wrote 'F.U.C.K' on the door. Short for 'Fornication Under Consent of the King

A 'Cock and Bull' story relates to a pub called 'The Cock and Bull' along the major trades routes of medevil britain. Stories would be told by travelling tradesmen and along the way it get twisted but so many retellings.

And my lastest one is 'Chav' apparently originated in Newcastle,UK and was used during the war as a friendly term. For example...'friend' or 'mate'.

Health is a secondary consideration when you have a lifestyle to maintain

Not seen a Banana do Double staff in the woods? You obviously weren't at that party!

'my guess would be staffers dont waste time talking bollox' - strugz


GazzaBeeBRONZE Member
PoiBoi
627 posts
Location: Manchester, UK


Posted:
That F one isn't true!! The etymology of most of our four letter words is anglo saxon. When England's wealthy were speaking french, the prols were looked down upon, and their language considered crude and dirty... so many of the anglo saxon words relating to parts of the body, or physical acts are now considered rude! I am sure you can think of all those lovely 4 letter words!!

Stuck in my Poi comfort zone....


MojojoGOLD Member
wandering dingo
167 posts
Location: Aussie in London, Australia


Posted:
Just skip back to the grave thing for a minute, there's another saying that comes from the bell attached to the bodies when they were buried:
Dead ringer
As in looks so alike someone else it could be that someone else coming back from the dead - after they had rung the bell from their coffin.

Only three things are certain: Death, Taxes, and that England will not win back the Ashes in this lifetime.


Hanzveteran
1,328 posts
Location: Bendigo, Vic, Australia


Posted:
Many years ago, in Scotland, a new game was invented.
It was ruled "Gentlemen Only...Ladies Forbidden"....and thus the word GOLF entered into the English language.

In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress lightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase "goodnight, sleep tight."

It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the honeymoon.

In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts.. So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down. It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's"

Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice.

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