Things our parents used to say


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To say 'Calm down.' Dad would often say 'Steady the buffs.'

I once asked him what this meant and he just laughed. Was it rude or did he just not know?

Had he been in the army? I don't know all the details, but it's an army expression - the Buffs being a particular regiment I think.

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If anywhere, especially the house, was untidy, my Mum would say. it: 'Looked like Jackie Pownall's' (I believe Pownalls scrap yard was down by the old Vic baths?) Another variation was .'Looks like

My old mum, now passed, grew up in old St Anne's and knew hard times from being little until she met and married dad, one of her regular sayings was "If you can't afford it wi real money, you can

Tomlinson, In answer to your question #1387, I used to have some really good Tide Marks on my neck and running up my arms. The back of our house on Hardy's Drive, Gedling was a shared yard, I can'

pummad

A fummad is some kind molecule according to Google, but as far as stink goes I've never heard it.

Come to think of it, carnie, mam probably did say 'orming', not 'slorming.

I've heard of this, my mam and dad both used it but I reckon the spelling is wrong, I reckon is should slauming and I think it may be an Indian word.

Like avatar, bungalow, bangle, juggernaut, jungle, thug and verandah etc.

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Dad always used to say to me "Don't be infantile ". I didn't mind but I was 21 at the time.

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My wife and I lay in bed today talking about this, that and everything. I got up to go for a pee and she asked me where I was going.

"I'm going for a Jimmy Riddle" I replied. I don't recall ever using that expression before but my wife said that her mother had said it.

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When naughty as child my grandmother used to say I was a " little so and so" still no idea what she meant. From the north east so it maybe just a Geordie saying, any ideas.

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In the late 1800s there was a popular "comic" song called Jimmy Riddle .....Jimmy Riddle who played the fiddle ! This may be where the rhyming slang came from .

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Anyone heard their parents use odd words for insects? My father was from Norfolk ( a 'Bevin Boy' posted to Nottinghamshire pits) and used to refer to ladybirds as 'Bishy-barney-bees'.

For years I though that it was just a daft alliterative name but later learned that it may have related to Norwich's Bishop Barnabas whose ecclesiastical cloak was embroidered with dak motifs on red background and seemed to resemble a ladybird. Not so daft after all, then.

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On thinking about her she never used to swear if she did anything where others would swear she would say " bally thing" thank you imp for bringing back memories.

That's interesting. A possible North-East of England/East coast Scotland sharing of words - as I've seen many times.

My Scottish father would refer to me as a 'bally nuisance' if I was misbehaving when I was a bairn.

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"You useless article " . That was another of dads favourites.

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