Strange phrases or idioms
 

I've noticed that some people have strange phrases or idioms that are part of their verbal repertoire. These phrases are often unique to them. Here are a few from my mother:

"Gee mini-Christmas!"
Father: The Donaldsons' house was flooded. The lost everything in their basement.
Mother: Gee mini-Christmas! That's awful!

"Golly Gee"
Father: Would you like to go out for pizza?
Mother: Golly Gee, that sounds great!

"Let’s blow this popsicle stand!"
Father: We better hit the road if we want to make it church on time.
Mother: Let's blow this popsicle stand!

"It will be an adventure!"
Doctor: Post-op you will have no use of your right arm for three months.
Mother: It will be an adventure!

I occasionally use "Let's blow this popsicle stand!" I also use "ya der ay-nah-hey" occasionally.
Wife: I think that we should wait until the weekend to go to the grocery store.
Me: ya der ay-nah-hey [sounds good].

Do you or people you know have any phrases/idioms that seem unique?

I believe It's Jiminy Christmas. Instead of Cricket.

Wtf is your last one? I don't get it at ALL xD

My favorite are regional responses to sneezing.

The last time I was in Indiana, I got "Bless us and save us, said Old Mrs. Davis". It was so esoteric, I had to laugh. I keep trying to find an excuse to get back to Indiana so I can hear it again.

There's some southern colloquialisms that are sure to raise an eyebrow up north -- like when someone asks how hot is it on Texas, you can replay "Hotter'n two rats fucking in a wool sock!"

That one always sets 'em back on their heels.

That & when you see a really attractive woman, declare "I'd walk a mile to stand in her shit!" (another party favorite.)

Personally, I'm prone to "Jesus Herbert Walker Christ!," though I also like Woody Harrelson's "Jesus fucking Christ on a flaming pogo stick!" (from Natural Born Killers, I think) People know you're serious about surprise when you use that one.

I heard something like that once: "I'd drag my balls through a mile of broken glass just to hear her fart over a walkie talkie."

That's quality, there.

I grew up in rural Pennsylvania. I have many idioms that are unique to that region. I intentionally had to drop many of them, as no one from outside of that area had any clue what I was talking about.

For example;
I had to stop ordering "dippy" eggs in restaurants because the waitress did not know that I wanted them "sunny side up".

If I told someone to stop "rutsching around", what I really wanted was them to stop squirming or fidgeting.

It took a little bit to understand that if I said that it was going to "make wet" I was really saying that it was about to rain. And then, when it started to "spritz" meant that it was beginning to drizzle.

Few ever understood, and many still don't, that to "red up" a room means to clean it.

If I say "Outen the lights"...it means turn off the lights.

And yet, when I visit back home, I fall right back into it.

Hey, let's go down the shore this weekend!

...that "down the shore" phrase is pretty common in the eastern PA/NJ area. Of course it means let's go to the New Jersey beach (of your choice) and "down" does not even need to imply "south" since I can go down to Seaside Heights though it's east and a bit north of here.

And I am going down the shore tomorrow. My kids are off with their friends, wife is busy....Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!

Where, exactly, are you from? I spent a few years there for grad school, and could never get used to the phrase: "That needs fixed." (instead of "that needs to be fixed," or "that needs fixing"). Do you say that? People from around Pittsburgh also tend to say "wooter" instead of "water," which amuses me... being from Seattle, where I don't think we have any weird accents/phrases. Except that ktsp makes fun of me for saying "ruff" instead of "rOOf" but I think he's wrong, hahahaha.

I also dislike a few phrases that I heard my parents use a lot...

Mom: "in cahoots" (what does that actually mean?)
Mom: "English is not my mother's tongue." (which was true, actually...)

Dad: "in the hoosegow" (which, I found out, actually comes from Spanish for jail... jugado, I believe?)

An annoying ex: "Well, color ME surprised..."
Same ex: "Holy _insert term_, Batman!" (for EVERYTHING... one reason he was really annoying)

That's all I can think of, for now.

So that's where that comes from!!! My SO says that all the time, and I noticed that his dad says it too--he must get it from his mom (SO's grandma), who's from back there.

My mom has all kinds of odd colloquialisms. I use them on a regular basis, as kids I babysit think they're funny. I'll have to give some more thought to what precisely they are, as I've just barely had my coffee and my brain isn't fully functioning yet.

I've heard from some Americans that the way we say "gone missing" is a strange way to say that something is lost.

Eg, My car keys have gone missing.


Also, in Quebec there's some swear terms eg tabernac. (i'm not sure what it means, other than it invokes some religious overtones) which tend to be empasized by adding "fuckin" eg:

taber-fuckin-nac!

I always get a kick out of that one.

I don't know that they're regional (Oklahoma), but my Dad uses sayings all the time:

"Best thing since sliced bread" - or "canned beer"; whichever he's feeling like that day
"Sweating like a sow" - which from what I've read, pigs don't sweat much at all, hence they have to roll around in the mud.
He uses more but that's the ones I can think of right now.

I say "wranch" for ranch and "worsher" for washer. My friend teases me all the time.

About an hour to an hour and a half drive south of Pittsburgh.

Yep. Yep, I do. :) And it drives my Journalism Major wife up the wall.

Actually it's more like "Whuter". Speaking of which...the body of "whuter" known to most as a creek, is pronounced by yours truly as a "crick". A true Pennsylvanian can pinpoint the county that I'm from by the fact that if I have one hundred of something, I'll say that I have a hunderd. A bastardization of the German ein hundert.

LANCELOT: No, no, sweet Concorde! Stay here! I will send help as soon as I have accomplished a daring and heroic rescue in my own particular... [sigh]
CONCORDE: Idiom, sir?
LANCELOT: Idiom!

Golly gee willikers!

i think a popular australian one is "damn straight!"

eg:
#1: are you going to the gig?
#2: (showing strong positive reply) damn straight!

I used to work with a Canadian ex-Airforce Fireman who would praise a particularly fine woman by saying "I'd crawl a mile naked over broken glass to suck the dick of the last guy that fucked her, eh?"

He really said "eh?" at the end of every sentence as well. And "aboot".

He'd never liven in Canada either - he grew up on RCAF bases because his dad was a pilot - he was the most stereotypical Canadian I ever met.

Lovely guy though.

The technical term for inserting one word into another is TMESIS. Fan-bloody-tastic. :thumbsup:

A guy I know will say tuff like "Sweating like Fred West digging the garden" (Fred West was a notorious killer and buryer of young girls caught in the 1990s in the UK); or "sweating like Gary Glitter at a children's party".

He was a sick individual.

ya der ay-nah-hey

I picked it up working construction in rural Wisconsin. The "ya" sounds a lot like the Minnesota "ya" depicted in Fargo. The "der" is how some Wisconsinites say "there". I'm not sure about the "ay-nah-hey".

I've also heard the following in SE Wisconsin:

Gimme dat wrench over der, one time ay.

My family has been doing this for years:
Mom: What time are you coming down?
Me: The usual.Jewish two-ish.
Jewish two-ish is " two, mebbe two thoity..."

raining like a cow pissing on a flat rock
no bigger than a minute
i'd give twenty bucks just to listen to her piss into a tin cup.......over the phone

Some of the ones I use or hear frequently, which might have Marine or Southern origins:

You cant polish a turd.

That'd go over like a fart in church.
a whore in church.

He's nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Volunteer, or someone will be voluntold.

Your uniform looks like someone hit you with a wrinkle grenade.

He's dumber than a box of rocks.

I could drive to Raleigh to get a cheaper deal, but that squeeze ain't worth the juice.


I'm sure I'll think of others, but those are just off the top of my head...

Years ago, when I first read Gardens of Stone, by Nicholas Proffitt, I saw that one as "I'd drag my balls over ten miles of broken glass just to hear her piss into a tin can."

Never gets old...

These are great fun!

I can't offer any myself but I was wondering about this:

Last I heard it's prisión in Spanish. jugado is the past participle of the verb judged. Maybe it's slang for jail??

As a note, in cahoots means in league with. They're scheming.

Looks like hoosegow does come from judged (juzgado rather than jugado probably).

-That had as much impact as a fart in a hurricane.
-I was so stunned I didn't know whether to shit or go blind.
And my personal favorite:
-Well I'll be dipped in shit!

LOL!

-I gotta piss like a russian (rushin' ?) race horse (no idea...)
-My teeth are swimming, be right back (another piss reference)
-I'll slap a fart out of you that sounds like a freight train (I swear my wife's boss said this)
-She looks like she got slapped by an ugly stick.
-Fuck the ugly stick. The whole tree fell on him.
-Slower than molasses in winter.
-(in reference to a kid's room) Looks like a tornado blew up in here! (as in exploded in here, not the hip-hop "up in here, up in here!" reference.
-I'd eat a mile of shit if it led to her ass.

Personal favorite:
-Son, you're as ugly as a sack full of assholes.

Oh oh yeah, almost forgot!
Dadgum it!

As an additional note, I love this thread.

When I was a teen/twenty y.o., we used to say "do you have a mouse in your pocket?"...whenever somebody used "we" in a sentence were the "we's" didn't want to be included. e.g.: "We're all in this together"....to which we might say: "do you have a mouse in your pocket?" meaning he's on his own with this one.

Another one...sort of harsh: "Here's a dime, call somebody who cares" or often it could be "Here's a dime, call somebody who gives a shit" ...also from back in the day when phone calls were a dime and there was no such thing as cell phones.

That first one is baffling, second is gold if common.

In refering to a girl as a butterface. Everything is good 'but her face.'

That dipshit Anderson Cooper of CNN a few weeks ago. "We are waiting on breaking news that hasn't happened yet. As soon as it does, we will have it for you."

that reminds me of one I heard of a long time ago:

"She looks like she lost a flaming shovel fight"


(change to "he" depending on usage, but I heard it with "she")

Any of you hear of this one?:

This is a relatively new one on me...but my two boys (12 & 13yo) seem to be doing it everyday, if not constantly. They are calling "safety" and "doorknob" when they fart...here's the rundown from Urban Dictionary:

1. safety game
Doorknob is a game in which participants are supposed to say "safety" after they flatuate before other participants say "doorknob". This is known as "calling doorknob". If other participants call doorknob before the flatulater calls safety, then the non-flatuting participants are encouraged to physically assault the flatulater until he or she touches a doorknob. The game is generally assumed to be continuously active, and participants are frequently forced into the game unexpectedly, even against their will.

On weekends, it is not uncommon for me to guide my younger boy into his bed after he falls asleep watching TV. He is usually still mostly asleep as I gently push him in the right direction to his room and bed. Even during this seemingly full sleep state, he often says "safety" if he lets one slip out...so this is deep rooted.

My partner's family is from East Tennessee. Shortly after we got together I heard "fixin' to" for the first time. When spoken by some of her relatives this becomes "fittin' to." They also regularly say "What y'uns a doin'?"

My favorite: "I'll cornhole your poop chute with my grand pappy's wooden leg!"

That's been around for -ages-. Just as common is that when someone farts, everyone needs to call out a random (unique) color (as in if you repeat, it doesn't count). The last person to call one out has to make an 'unsuccessful sex noise/phrase'.

Ah hell, that's a new one for me. I'm gonna use that one ASAP http://texasoverclockers.com/images/smiles/crackup.gif

Oh, I know what it means... but not where the term originates. Cahoots?

My dad also says he's going to "shoot a rabbit" when he takes a pee in the woods. I've never heard anyone else say that... or at least not in a long time.

"the rabbit died" is an old expression for meaning a girl is pregnant.

"busier than a one-legged man in an asskicking contest". Not mine, but learned it in a book years ago.

"tighter than a nun's cunt" One time I was changing a flat for a priest who was not in collar. He said " are those lug nuts tight?" I said "tighter than a nun's cunt." "Better give them another turn."

Slicker than owl shit.

Skiing expressions: "puking pow" lot's of fresh snow. "Gaper", novice skier who stands around and in front of you blocking the trail gaping in amazement at all the mad skilz around them. "JONG" JerkOff Newbie Gaper.

I often wondered where the saying "Damn Straight" came from.

I think it's kinda red-necked and hillbillyish. A use of this would be as follows....

1st drunk- Man I think Beth has an ass that just won't quit.

2nd drunk-Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn Straight.

It's kind of an affirmation to something that has just been spoken.