I was just watching an episode of “Hetty Wainthropp” on public television (it’s a detective series), and you may know that Patricia Routledge of “Keeping Up Appearances” stars as Hetty. Anyway, Hetty made some remark about one of the other characters in the episode, describing her as “a sly how’s-your-father”. Anybody know the exact derivation of this expression? I have an idea of what it means, but it would be interesting to know where it came from and who coined it. I suspect it’s one of those phrases the older generation uses, like my grandparents used to say “23 skiddoo!” when they were young. Any thoughts?
“how’s your father” is a general purpose euphemism to replace a term which may not be considered suitable for a ‘polite’ conversation. So, in your example and given that the character is quite worldly but with a genteel veneer, “a sly how’s-your-father” would be used when she really wanted to say something like “a sly old bastard” - or worse.
Yes, and of them, the one I can’t get out of my mind is “why would anyone watch that crap?”
a sly how’s-your-father means that the person is a seedy, greasy, kind of guy.
Is “how’s-your-father” Cockney rhyming slang? If so, for what, exactly?
Its not cockney Rhyming slang. Seedy, casual sex is sometimes referred to as “a bit of How’s-your-father”
This is a euphamism for sex outside marriage but is really about naughty goings on in general that are not supposed to be discussed by polite people.
If you imagine two old biddies gossiping about something or somebody which might be scandalous and then the subject just happens to walk in the room then, to give the impression of normal conversation, one of the old biddies might suddenly speak out loud “…and hows your father” which is also a warning to the other old biddy to chage the subject.
The UK does not have “citizens” as they never had the French revolution. In the UK they are “subjects” of HM.
Here’s some info. on how you can apply for British citizenship. Note that it says “citizen”, not “subject”.