yoyo, my Mother used to say "Lord love a duck" and when my father was moved to exasperation he would groan "God save Ireland." I've no idea where either expression came from.

I posted on this thread yesterday, but I guess it vanished into the ether! LOL I've never heard "Lord love a duck" before. I wonder what it's origins are?

I posted on another forum that we had a hard rain that was a real frog-strangler, and several members thought that was pretty funny.

My DH and I have picked up "holy crap on a cracker" from the Big Bang Theory.

Donna

I don't have any but my English grandmother used to exclaim "Gordon Bennett!" when surprised by something happening suddenly.

She told me that it was referring to a soldier and I thought it would have been brought back by army personnel from the First World War.

However there is an alternative explanation on the i'net, that it refers to an American playboy.

Take your pick!

Anna, after some quick searching I found a very interesting explanation of where that expression originated :

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/gordon-bennett.html

When I was in my twenties and rather new to my family of in-laws, my former husband's grandmother was telling me about one their relatives and said, "He was so cheap, he wouldn't pay a nickel to see the pope walk a tightwire." That made me laugh hard and all these years later, I still remember that phrase.

Kathy, we have a friend whose mother said he was so tight he’d make the buffalo on a nickel fart!

Donna

Friedag......that is wonderful. I value oral family history like this. Children need to know their roots and "inside" expressions make all feel like family.

Frieda, I think your story could be important in that it brings alive not just the history of your family but the wider look at the era of the Depression. I wonder how many young people in the US have much/any comprehension about those times 'though only a couple of generations ago?

Yoyobon and Vee, quite recently I attended a covered-dish social in Texas where I was seated next to a man about my age I didn't know. I noticed he had not started eating from his filled plate because he was surveying the table obviously looking for something. I asked him: Do you need anything I can pass to you? I was astonished to hear him say, "A little bit of butter for the sick lady." He said the whole phrase, although with the modern pronunciation. As far as I know the phrase originated in Iowa with my grandmother, but now I wonder if it might have been a stock phrase that was current during the Depression, or perhaps even before then. So far, I haven't found any documented evidence of it.

I introduced myself to my tablemate and asked him where he was from. "Iowa," he said. We laughed over both of us knowing the "little bit of butter" expression. He admitted that he hadn't intended to say it, it had just happened spontaneously; but surely it wasn't a coincidence that a rather obscure saying was known by two former Iowans. We speculated whether we might be kinfolk. Later we learned that, yes, we are distantly related. How the phrase came to be used by his branch of the family remains a mystery. I wonder if it spread even farther afield!

I love old-time language uses that have somehow survived. When they crop up unexpectedly in the oddest of places, I think it is marvelous.

I often use the expression, "We went all around Robin Hood's barn," meaning a roundabout route. I have no idea where I first heard it.

Another is "It's hotter than the hubs of hell."

Or, "He was on that like a duck on a June bug.'

I often say, in response to an unacceptable idea/suggestion : " Let's not and say we did." The first time I said that to my little grandson about one of his not-so-great ideas my DIL quickly said " No ! We don't lie about things !"

I was amused and shocked that she would react that way to what I considered a phrase that is not literal. I had to assume that she'd never heard it before.

laceyvail, I am quite familiar with the "Robin Hood's barn" expression. I have never heard it outside of the East Coast. We say "hotter than Hades" (which it truly is here, today, in SC-- 97).

One that I love that I learned from my NC relatives: "even a blind hog could find itself an acorn."

Lol....the south has some wonderful expressions. Please share more !

Of course everyone has a favorite ending for

this expression :

"dumber than ....."

-a box of rocks

- a bag of door knobs

- a post

One memorable saying I first heard in Louisiana, but it might not be only a Southernism. It's about any woman who never has a hair out of place and certainly never sweats.

"She's so perfect you could throw her in a full swimming pool but she wouldn't get wet."

I've known a few of those women. I would never qualify as one.

Frieda, that expression would probably often end with, “bless her heart.” :)

Bon, one time my brother was on a conference call with clients in France. One of the French men said something, and my brother said to his coworker “this guy’s dumb as a box of rocks.” He thought the phone speaker was on mute until the French man asked, “what is the meaning of box of rocks?” I think my brother kept his opinions to himself after that!

Donna

Donna......bless his heart !

An Alabama acquaintance introduced me to the phrase 'dumber than dirt.' I'm not sure if it's a Southernism, or just peculiar to Alabama. Another phrase for the same idea is one I heard first in the play Nunsense, which is the one I usually use: 'Nice house, nobody home.'

I hear "older than dirt" here.

Another favorite expression when you are dealing with someone who talks a big talk but can't back it up :

" All hat and no cattle."

And a vulgar expression from here for a female who has 'done well' but is no better than she should be "All fur coat and no knickers."

Vee......I shall remember that one for sure !! lol

When I'm doing something that I might feel is tedious I frequently say to myself " It's not easy being green...." This is from a song sung by Kermit The Frog , the muppet :0) Yes, I know.....I'm deep !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRZ-IxZ46ng

That "No better than she should be" expression annoys me! It doesn't make sense, does it?

No better than she should be ...what?

The phrase perhaps suggests that she is just an ordinary , usual woman of normal means who is sporting high end goods gotten through questionable and perhaps illegal methods .

Annpan, apparently the expression goes back to Henry Fielding and the mid seventeen hundreds and always referred to females of dubious morals with an eye to the main chance.

Yoyo, it was always used in a derogatory way of some woman with dubious morals, as Vee said. Sometimes unfairly and in a catty tone. If the woman was within hearing distance, the person uttering the phrase might find themselves in trouble and get a sharp slap in the face! A good character was important and not to be treated lightly.

Lol .....yes for sure derogatory ! Hard to take that statement as a compliment.

When I was growing up, I often heard as an exclamation: "Oh ye gods and little fishes!" I cannot imagine its origin.