"Piffle, Rammel & Twaddle"


Recommended Posts

A BBC2 series on words is launched tomorrow evening, entitled Balderdash and Piffle

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctwo/listings/progr...00_4224_8470_50

My late mother’s Nottinghamese produced regular use of the world ‘piffle’, often used in conjunction with ‘rammel’ and ‘twaddle’.

Her word for a fried meal was ‘frizzle’, my use of which at school once caused me to be dragged to the front of the class for the ritual humiliation.

She also used a collection of her own particular local phrases, which both my children revel in repeating to this day.

Some examples were:

“I’d want two of them for that price!”

“Not for the likes of us”

“Yer look like the Devil!”

“I’ll clip yer earhole, in two minutes”

“Stop slopping and slormin’”

“That what yer can’t eat”….. covering any reference to sexual matters.

I’ll get my kids to remind me of some others.

Cheers

Robt P.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • Replies 65
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Remember the sayings very well, add to it 'Cheap at half the price', and you have the total sum of conversation for a good part of Nottingham.

The word 'frazzle' conjurs up cheese on a plate cooked in the oven at the side of the fire, also the bacon edges and the black smoke emitting from the pan when it was being cooked. I like the edges of a fried egg when they have been 'frizzled'. they have a taste that can never be copied.

Do you remember when chicken was a luxury? we had a beef joint for Sunday lunch and my dad always got the first slice off the joint, it was always a bone of contention with me. My dad kept chickens during and after the war, we killed one for Sunday lunch. It was plucked, stuffed and roasted and it then went straight in the bin as nobody could eat it, we had the oldest chickens on the estate as they all died of old age, some war effort...

A ;)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Anyone pronouncing their "aitches" were also ridicluled as being stuck up!

I recall when at school I called the teacher "Mester" and had the pee taken out of me!

We always had a roast on the table every Sunday, chicken was our Xmas dinner! Once a year and that was it.

Dad always told me "Never tell yer Mam yer likes anything"! WHY??? You'll get it seven days a week! too bloody true!

Wonder if he told her he liked sex ;)

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
GLOSSARY: M

Yorkshire term Definition

mardy- moody, sulky, stroppy

mester mister

From The Beeb

Them Yorkies 'ul nick owt, even the way we speak smile2

Link to post
Share on other sites

They were the days - we only had chicken at Christmas, how things have changed - My mam also did 'bubble and squeak' on mondays for tea - it was the left overs from sunday lunch fried up in the pan - lovely. I remember when folk had a big pot annd into it went all the left overs and it was constantlky on the stove cooking a 'stew' ugh- But we weren't scared of eating owt then and never picked up all these modern ailments folk seem to get now - it's because they are cosseted so much - no immunity!

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 months later...

we used to have a capon at xmas cause it was bigger and everything had salt on it. anyone remember getting sent to the chippie with a pudding basin to get filled with chips and peas on top. i did`nt mind going cause i always asked for some fishbits

Link to post
Share on other sites
we used to have a capon at xmas cause it was bigger and everything had salt on it. anyone remember getting sent to the chippie with a pudding basin to get filled with chips and peas on top. i did`nt mind going cause i always asked for some fishbits

"Me Mam 'ud do that Rob"

Jeeze thats 'reet" we alus 'ad chicken at Xmas too, it were a luxury in the 50's early 60's.

Me Dad was a lorry driver and when I were off school on hols, he'd tek us wi 'im! There was this 'ere place in Brum that served chicken dinners most day 'o week, and if 'e were on the Brummie run, 'ed tek us in there at snap time and gerrus a chicken dinner!

Now imagine that lot in the old Nottm dialect that we all spoke, every word is true though.

Link to post
Share on other sites

the thing is, i still prefer a chicken for my xmas dinner to this day. something else about nottm talk is that when you were a kid it was always " tek over that car dad " never " over take that car " as it should have been. i still tell the kids now that men are called mesters never master.

Link to post
Share on other sites
the thing is, i still prefer a chicken for my xmas dinner to this day. something else about nottm talk is that when you were a kid it was always " tek over that car dad " never " over take that car " as it should have been. i still tell the kids now that men are called mesters never master.

I left Nottm around 1975 Rob, I went to work in what was then Cleveland, a part of what Ted Heaths lot created from North Yorks, I understand it's back as North Yorks.

I went to work at the brand new Boulby Mine near Staithes. One of the other electricians was from a south Yorks city, can't recall which one now, but he always said mester! So it wasn't peculiar to us Nottm folks, t'old lad.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 11 months later...

Why did we only have chicken at Christmas? Was it really more expensive than the beef, lamb (O.K., mutton), and pork that we had the rest of the year?

I bet it wasn't until 1968 or '69 that we had turkey for Christmas - I wasn't impressed - except for the size it was just like chiken!

Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah I remember Mush & Yitney being used when I was a kid. Wasn't mush also used to describe your face too?

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 3 weeks later...

Over here if someone is chatty, they talk a lot. In my Nottingham days, if you were chatty, you were dirty, like ground-in dirt.

Link to post
Share on other sites
  • 2 weeks later...
Over here if someone is chatty, they talk a lot. In my Nottingham days, if you were chatty, you were dirty, like ground-in dirt.

We used to call being dirty, ditched and if something was having a "bodge job "ie not being done correctly or only partly it was called "a lick and a promise"

;)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Mum used to say come here & I'll give you a lick & a promise , as in a quick wash with a flannel until she could do a proper job :(

Link to post
Share on other sites

Did any one mention "it's a bit black owwer bill's movvers" meaning it looks like rain is on it's way?

;)

Link to post
Share on other sites

I still say something like that now BF,when the black clouds roll over the mountains,I say oo it's black over bills backyard,obviously been in Oz too long I can't even remember the old sayings of my childhood :rolleyes:

Link to post
Share on other sites

just remembered (or rather been reminded) of a couple of others a gap between two houses was a twitchel and a chod bin (at work) was were all the cr*p went

;)

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...