Naked Science Forum
General Discussion & Feedback => Just Chat! => Topic started by: paul.fr on 11/12/2008 22:46:47
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Have you heard a saying or phrase and wondered where it originated? Well why not have the clever clogs of the forum fill you in!
to start off:
where did this saying originate:
"she was so ugly that when she was a kid, her mummy had to tie pork chops around her neck so that the dog would play with her". I heard this today for the first time and it made me chuckle.
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I first heard that said by Les Dawson.
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A saying that has always baffled me is "Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs". What's all that about?
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A saying that has always baffled me is "Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs". What's all that about?
In what context was that said?
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I'm sure there is a book about all this sort of stuff. It was mentioned on the Fred MacAully program recently.
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This sounds a plausible explanation for "Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs" ...
My understanding of it is that the person has just heard an amazing piece of information which is so important that it needs to be communicated immediately to the other people in the household (who happen to be upstairs). Therefore you go to the foot of the stairs in order to shout it up to the others so that they can hear.
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases-and-Sayings/Question13527.html
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The 'foot' of something can be equated with the 'root' or origin of something.
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The one that has always confused me is, after being told a piece of gossip people will say 'well I never' or 'well I never did'.
But the one I like is the exclamation 'Gordon Bennett'. There are many different ideas on where and how this originated including the most popularly accepted James Gordon Bennett. But the one I prefer is that off the Sheffield WW1 RAF pilot who after the war took to performing aerial acrobatics. His 'pièce de résistance ' being his flight through a barn, open at both ends, to which the audience would exclaim 'Gordon Bennett!'
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I heard that Gordon Bennett was an eccentric who used to go into restaurants and pull off the table cloths of other diners' tables. It was locally known that he did this, and when he was seen, people would say "Gordon Bennett!". I think that this is from one of Bill Bryson's books, perhaps "Made in America".
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The one that has always confused me is, after being told a piece of gossip people will say 'well I never' or 'well I never did'.
This is a shortened form of 'Well I never heard (did hear) anything like that before'
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What about "Jesus H Christ!" why is the H in there?
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his middle name was Houdini. How do you think he got out of that cave?
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What about "Jesus H Christ!" why is the H in there?
I was just about to ask that!
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This sounds a plausible explanation for "Well I'll go to the foot of our stairs" ...
My understanding of it is that the person has just heard an amazing piece of information which is so important that it needs to be communicated immediately to the other people in the household (who happen to be upstairs). Therefore you go to the foot of the stairs in order to shout it up to the others so that they can hear.
http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Phrases-and-Sayings/Question13527.html
Why not just say "I'll have to tell the others"? Or what if they were in the garden?
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Christogram, (no not a Jesus impersonator who delivers a messsage), his logo ...
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Christogram - I've just pictured a stripping Jesus delivering a birthday message [;D]
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Why not just say "I'll have to tell the others"? Or what if they were in the garden?
I think the phrase would have originated in communities where they did not have a garden,
(e.g. "Coronation Street" type 2up-2down houses).
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OK then - why not "I'll go to the front door and tell the whole bloody street"!
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...tell the whole bloody street
I think that expression is reserved for embarrassing information which one would rather not leave the home.
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...tell the whole bloody street
I think that expression is reserved for embarrassing information which one would rather not leave the home.
Too late. I've been on to The News Of The World.
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The one that has always confused me is, after being told a piece of gossip people will say 'well I never' or 'well I never did'.
This is a shortened form of 'Well I never heard (did hear) anything like that before'
Well I never did!!! Thank you. It's quite obvious now have pointed that out.
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Now, what about, 'I'll be a monkey's uncle'?
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It means 'that can't be true'. I'll wager a pound to a yard of tripe that it dates from the controversy following the Origin of Species in 1859 - or perhaps the Scopes trial era, 1920s.
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Now, what about, 'I'll be a monkey's uncle'?
No idea about this one but it makes me think of "Bob's your uncle"... Who's Bob?
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I don't know what the origins of saying "Gordon Bennet" are, but I suspect it's persisted because people start saying "Oh Go..." and then remember that there are children/ladies/ministers present and divert from the coming blasphemy to something less contentious. As for "Oh s..ugar!" and "Oh f..lipping heck".
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No idea about this one but it makes me think of "Bob's your uncle"... Who's Bob?
When Prime Minister Lord (Robert) Salisbury made his nephew (Balfour) up to a senior government post in Ireland in 1887 it was seen as nepotism. It's possible that 'Bob's your uncle' referred to this kind of easy passage into high office, or a good life.
That doesn't explain 'Fanny's your aunt' though.
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wAHT ABOUT, Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey?
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Speaking of Fanny, one of the best unintentional lines was by Johnny Craddock (for the US Fanny & Johnny Craddock were early TV celebtity cooks, Fanny did the cooking while Johnny passed things to her and swigged at the cooking sherry).
After making some doughnuts (dohnuts) Fanny showed them to camera and Johnny said "I hope your doughnuts turn out like Fannies".
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LOL doughnuts like Fannies [;D]
On HMS Victory you can see canon balls stacked pyramidally on a ring of brass (a monkey) on the deck to the side of the gun's trucks. The explanation is that in cold weather it would shrink and tip the ordinance off.
There are problems with this account, apparently to do with brass not contracting enough to cause this and the original phrase being recorded as freezing the tail off a brass monkey. I'll add another to that - there was already a monkey on board eighteenth-century ships of the line; boys sent to the magazines for fresh supplies in battle were called 'powder monkeys'.
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No idea about this one but it makes me think of "Bob's your uncle"... Who's Bob?
When Prime Minister Lord (Robert) Salisbury made his nephew (Balfour) up to a senior government post in Ireland in 1887 it was seen as nepotism. It's possible that 'Bob's your uncle' referred to this kind of easy passage into high office, or a good life.
That doesn't explain 'Fanny's your aunt' though.
Thanks blakestyger!
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I hope your doughnuts turn out like Fannies
Then there was the cricket commentator who came up with the line:
"The batsman's Holding, the Bowler's Willy"
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wAHT ABOUT, Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey?
I think that this is a nautical term - the balls are cannon balls, and the brass monkey was a small cannon. I think.