The English language: Favourite sayings, aphorisms, insults, ...

Mr Bigmem

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Just a few that pop in my head lol, and this is even before I look at the modern london street slang that has morphed from mixing cockney and westindian colloquialisms

  1. She's all fur coat and no knickers
  2. She's mutton dressed as lamb
  3. You can't make a purse out of a sows ear
  4. Good from afar, but far from good
  5. Talk the hind legs of a donkey
  6. Long in the tooth
  7. It's a bit parky
  8. Would you adam and eve it
 

Looney12345

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Two reasons for this thread:

One, I’ve always been interested in language. Not in learning heaps of them (unfortunately) but in the way it is used, as a phenomenon, as communication, action and intention, and also how it is so much more than direct and literal. On that latter note, style, ornateness, embellishments are the spices of language, which lift it from a mundane rice pudding to that festive and exotic lime and coconut syllabub (or should I say syllabic).

Second, after having joined TSR and later ATG, I realised just how much my English is influenced by that superpower across the Atlantic, despite (I believe) being taught British English in school. I just wasn’t fully aware of the differences beyond centre/center, colour/color, -ise/-ize, and a few others. Never mind boot and trunk, wellies and rubber boots, or sweets and candy (eh, @Looney12345, you corrected me once).

So, on those notes, as it were, please enlighten me, humour me, indulge me with your favourite phrases, sayings, aphorisms, insults, annoyances, etc., US vs UK or not.

I’ll start things off with “a sandwich short of a picnic”. What a fabulous way of saying that someone is, well, a wazzock(?) :wink:
Ah yes, sweets and candy, had to pipe up for that one!

Enjoying reading through this thread, some real gems!
 

Driftwood

Forum GOD!
Here's some Scottish colloquial expressions:
Heid doon erse up - Get on with it
A' his eggs are double yoakit - That chap's a boastful blowhard
Keep the heid - Stay calm
 
Chuff. (v)

"Up the Chuff" (A bad situation or as a separable phrasal verb of "position)
Chuffing Nora"! (Shocked)
"Chuffed to bits" (Pleased)

Also "Bun struggle" is a nice phrase for a tea party. Bun meaning a small cake rather than a hairstyle of a lady...and nowadays a trendy gent.
 
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Benz3ne

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Welshisms;

'Iya' - hello.
Butt - mate.
Butty - a sandwich.
Bap - also a sandwich...or boob/breast (singular), 'baps' plural.
Tidy - great.
Sound - also 'great'.
Lush - again, 'great', or 'really nice'.
Hanging - pronounced 'angin', grim/nasty.
Buzzing - pronounced 'buzzin', also grim/nasty.
Tamping - pronounced 'tampin', particularly angry.
Like - usually used instead of full stops. Mandatory ending to sentences, like.

Year/here/ear - all pronouced 'year'.
 
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