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What regional sayings amuse you?

"I don't want to be caught with my pants down," I said. I was talking about replacing a worn-out item that I need next summer.

Nick laughed uproariously. As a third-generation orchardist, he has never heard this before.

"Glad I could delight you with a Michigan saying," I said dryly. More Michigan humor.

Western dialect bemuses me and sounds Southern:

"Crick" is a creek.

"A shed" is antlers on the ground. ( scratches head )

What regional sayings amuse you?

LiterateHiker 9 Jan 20
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1

When I lived in Vermont, they used to call a lake a pond. They also end most sentences with, "yep, yep."

0

The antlers thing is because the deer or elk has shed their antlers.

@tnorman1236

I know that. Using the verb "to shed" as a noun is ridiculous.

1

My Mom used to say, when I was acting up, "I'll jerk a knot in your tail!"

2

Around here, when an older person discovers something they've been looking for was right in front of them all along, they say "if that had been a bear, it would have bitten me" - or, in the old East Anglian accent which, sadly, will be gone forever within a decade, "if tha' wurra burr, it wudda bit me".

I'd never heard it anywhere else in the UK and, as there have been no bears here for a thousand years, it seemed rather a peculiar saying. Then, one day, I happened to mention it to a Dutch friend who said she'd heard it in the Netherlands - so it may have been brought over with the Dutch drainages engineers who came to drain the Fens from the 1630s onwards.

Jnei Level 8 Jan 21, 2019

@dede18 Same here.

1

"Keep Portland Weird" is a local mantra (Portland, OR). We like tha t is is a bit off beat.

1

You belong here is like a one legged man entering an ass kicking contest.

2

Central NY: On Accident

That one's here too.

3

My father, from Oklahoma, used to describe heavy rain as "Like a cow pissing on a flat rock." Another was "Don't get your tit in a ringer."

Thankfully I was born and raised in California🙂

Recognize those from Missouri too. Charming huh.

@astrojc I'd heard that the knees were where bees gathered pollen; however, when I heard that, I couldn't help but ask if dogs collected pollen in a similar fashion. Some dogs sure seem determined to remove that pollen!

Here too.

2

The bees knees or dogs bollocks for something good.
Kip for nap
Isn't he/she precious, sarcastic and unflattering.
Bless your heart, may as well be f you
Happy as a pig in shit

Never got the bees knees thing

1

Deep "New Yawk" accents. Even though I consider myself a New Yorker, growing up in New Jersey I never actually developed one, though I can slide into it easily, especially when stressed. My mother's accent was very prominent -- for example, one of her favorite TV shows was "Lor 'n' Awda," she always loved her "cawfee," and she never left the house without her "pockabook."

@TheAstroChuck Yeah, I have a friend who grew up in Boston. Even though she hasn't lived there in decades, her accent will slip out. I love how she says "Matha's Vinyid."

2

" Bush Chook," - the Outback nickname for the Aussie Emu,
" Dump/depot duck," - Aussie name for a crow.
" Sheep Shagger," - A Kiwi ( New Zealand) Sheep Farmer,
" Shit for Brains," - someone who is really dumb/stupid,
" Thunderbox," - Aussie nickname for a long-drop toilet,
" Billy lids," - Aussie rhyming slang for kids(children),
"Flat out like a lizard drinking," - you're working really hard,
" Picking the date," - someone is caught scratching their bum ( backside),
" Crib time," - Aussie for Lunch Break,
" dry as Dead Nun's tit," - you're very thirsty,
" P.F.O," - literally Pissed and Falling Over, i.e. blind drunk,
" Got the wobbly boot on," -Tipsy but not quite drunk yet,
" Church with the chimneys," - the local Pub.

Ah, so many Australianisms
"Bin chicken" - ibis
"Sook" - wimp, crybaby
"Busy as a one legged man in an arse kicking contest" - very busy
"Woop-woop" - the middle of nowhere.
"Seppo" - American

@Triphid

You could write a funny book with definitions of Aussie language. The illustrations would be hilarious!

@MrBeelzeebubbles

"Busy as a one legged man in an arse kicking contest" - very busy"

Priceless! I love it.

@LiterateHiker Jeez, what I posted was just a very short list and now you want me to write a whole book....LOL.

2

Ha there are so many, where do I start? The one that irks me most is the word we've which translated turns into where've ?, another one is mayor turns into mare ? and many words are shortened with the letters ....ie. For eg. photo is a photie, a tradesman is a tradie, breakfaat is brekkie. I could go on and on and on..........

2

None of those would be strange to hear in my part of the Appalachians either. There are oodles of colorful southern sayings around here, so much apart of my speech that I can't even think of a way to dilineate and recount them in my memory. I'll have to spend a week thinking about it to notice em in practice and make a mental list. The last time I surprised someone with a saying they hadn't heard before it was "I gotta eat somethin, I'm about to fall through my ass n hang myself."

Also I think an antler shed is called that because they literally shed their antlers and regrow them every year. That ones not so much an expressive nickname as it is just the verb for what they did.

2

We have a very local one here in the north east of the UK. "Put th'a wood in't hole." Meaning, do not leave the door open.

3

"You can't have your cake and eat it. " I could never understand that one as a child since it sounded so obvious it was surely a tautology. It was only when I grew older and realized that it was an answer to people with a excessively high sense of entitlement that it became clear.

2

In portuguese we have a word that literally translates as un-ass.
It means don't worry and have fun. Like "I drank a lot yesterday and un-assed myself"

1

As a native rural southerner, I enjoy very descriptive southern exxpressions like It come a tosad=strangler" ( rained very heavily), or ":as useless as the tits on a boar hog>"

2

I grew up in central Wahington, I have heard it before.

3

The most bizarre one I have heard, "I haven't had this much fun since the hogs ate my little brother".

That’s one of my favorites!

3

Always drink upstream from the herd

Don’t squat with your spurs on.

No point in moving the cattle on a hot day

I feel a whole lot more like I do now than I did a few hours ago!

@Haemish1

Sounds like cowboy talk. Yes, you live in Butte, Montana.

"Don't squat with your spurs on," is hilarious!

Thanks for the laugh.

@LiterateHiker
Actually, Butte is hard rock mining territory.
A local phrase there is “tap ’er light” - meaning -be careful. The phrase goes back to the miners having to tap dynamite into holes drilled in the rock, prior to blasting.

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