From :
I think the presumption is that your grandmother has no teeth and therefore prefers raw eggs to the hard wholemeal-mixed-with-barley bread that was the staple diet of British peasants in the 18th/19th centuries. (The dental health of the 18th-19th-early 20th century British was truly terrible; it was taken for granted that old people were toothless.
Richard
How's your father?
From
"The origin of the expression 'how's your father' can be traced back to Victorian times. In those days any man with a daughter was so protective of her virtue that he would take extraordinary measures to safeguard it. Unmarried girls would be kept within the bosom of their family as much as possible, chaperoned on excursions, and on those occasions when they were let out of bounds for social events, their fathers would often accompany them discreetly by hiding underneath their voluminous skirts ready to pounce on any man who transgressed the bounds of propriety.
However, a father with more than one daughter couldn't be everywhere at once. Thus, a suitor having a discreet vis-a-vis with his beloved would cautiously ascertain her father's whereabouts by asking, 'And how is your father?' If her father was currently under her skirts, she would glance downwards and reply, 'My father is very well, thankyou, and as alert and vigorous as ever, and maintains his interest in rusty castrating implements.' Her beau would then say, 'I have always had the greatest respect for your father, and of course for you. Let us hold hands and think about the Queen for a while.' If, on the other hand, her father was elsewhere, she would reply, 'The mad old bastard is currently stationed between my sister Constance's thighs. Let us go into the garden and rut like stoats.'
Hence, 'How's your father' became a euphemism for you-know-what. I imagine it never caught on in France because Frenchmen didn't care who shagged their daughters as long as they could watch."
Richard
Ooo! I remember one more! It's a good 'n'.
On long sea voyages you would almost definitely do something wrong and end up flooged. So when it was your turn to do the flogging you would not want to be too vigorous as soon enough you'd be at the other end. So the guy being flogged would say 'you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.'
One more:
The barrels that held the food would be washed out and the slush which had some nutritional value sold to the locals. The money raised would be put together and used for whatever it might be needed for. It was a 'slush fund'.
Okay, that really is it. I must give some sort of impression of having a life.
Richard
I don't know about 'Bob's your uncle'. I'll see what I can find.
Another common saying I like is 'Round the bend'. Big houses were built at the end of straight drives so they could be seen from the road; mental homes were built at the end of curved drives so they could be hidden away. So when you went mad it was said that you 'went round the bend'.
Richard
I was supposed to SPIT???
Boy is my face red . . .
Richard
I love to find out the origins of words and phrases that we use all the time and never really consider strange. Books on the subject fly of the shelves these days and the BBC series Balderdash and Piffle where the public were invited to research on behalf of the OED was very popular.
One of my favourite sayings in this respect is 'Kick the bucket'. It gets used every single day but if you think about it it is a very odd saying.
It turns out that when animals were slaughtered they were hung from wooden frames called buckets (perhaps they still are). When their throats were cut, at the point of death they would kick out against the frame. They would 'kick the bucket'.
Most sayings come from the navy. For instance, if you were on board a ship and had nothing to do and the captain saw you he'd give you the job of tying up the loose bits of rope that were hanging dangerously about. You would, therefore, find yourself quite literally at a loose end.
I was just wondering if anyone else has any such words and sayings they would like to share or just ask about. I am also wondering how anyone could possibly twist this post into something offensive I said but I am sure it could be done. Come on people, try! (You know who you are.) ;)
Richard
Bloke,
. . . . nothing.
Richard
'Whilst' is older and 'while' is newer and used mostly instead of the former in America. Otherwise there is no difference.
Richard
PS Eats, Shoots and Leaves was a very witty and informative book, I thought. It is very revealing that dumbing down barely rates a mention but its opposite (whatever that is) gets howls of disapproval.
De Sade,
While you said what you said at absolutely the wrong moment (having been surrounded for days) I admit readily that you didn't deserve to be spoken to so harshly by me. (Some of the others got off lightly.) I respect the fact you sent me a PM and I see you never meant any harm. I apologise and I have no problem doing so in a manner as public as my previous words.
Richard
You know, it has occurred to me that this has bugger all to do with grammar or what I did/didn't say. I am not even going to get into what I think it really is about. But the idea that it is I who is doing the judging here is laughable.
Richard
LondonPlaything,
You may find it interesting! I prefer to be disagreed with for something I actually said or thought. ;)
Richard
Felixx,
In that case, quite clearly, the opening post of mine was not directed at you. You should not have seen yourself in anything I said.
Richard
Pete,
It's hardly getting the last word in if I start a whole new thread and invite discussion, is it. Nor could it be a 'continuation of a slanging match' if I was never involved in one, or anything else, in the first place.
Richard
As I said before, this thread was supposed to be only a bit of fun. Usually, bring up this subject and everyone airs their little pet peeves and gives hilarious examples of signs they've seen that end up with double meanings because of a misplaced apostrophe or something but, clearly, that didn't happen this time.
Richard
Pete_sw,
I have made the point, more than once now, that I only objected to the dreadful grammar in a post that referred to others as 'morons' without even being able to spell the word correctly.
The rest of my post was not directed at anyone else here but was a more general point which I thought might make for an interesting discussion.
I thought all the talk about the benefits of an education were over the top. Information is free and, with the Web, readily available to anyone who can be bothered. As Polo pointed out, there is a huge difference between a lack of education and basic laziness. If people want to be lazy then that is fine with me. If they expect me to be the one to pick through their meaning when it is unclear then they might be disappointed.
And, once more in case it was missed yet again, I was objecting only to he who called others 'morons' when he couldn't even spell the word. Had he not done that I'd have said absolutely nothing.
Richard
:lol: :lol: 
