# "Aw, Nerts!" Antiquated Phrases You've Heard or Used **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [April 29, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286 "2002-04-29T14:07:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Willow\_fire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/45deac/32.png) [@Willow\_fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Willow_fire)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/81 "2002-05-02T20:21:15Z")
I say “shuzbut” alot (from Mork and Mindy) I know its not that old My Gram always says “Do you need (or I need) to see Miss Murphy” instead of saying gotta go to the bathroom…she says its from some old movie but I don’t know what one. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/82 "2002-05-02T20:57:06Z")
Oh, I just thought of another one: “If wishes were horses…” Used in contexts like “Jane is turning 16 soon and thinks her parents should get her a car for her birthday. Well, if wishes were horses…” It comes from a Scottish proverb (circa 1630, IIRC) that starts off “If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.” I’ve mostly heard it from those of British, Irish or Scottish ancestry – rarely ever hear it in North America. A female rock 'n roller I know, whose mom used the expression all the time, gets a lot of flak from people who think she got the saying from a Melissa Etheridge song. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2002, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/83 "2002-05-02T21:05:36Z")
Oh! And another (again, courtesy of the 74 yr. old with whom we regularly have dinner." “All mouth and trousers.” A put down for over-confident asses. My girlfriend has adopted that saying. ---
**Author:** ![meezer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9c0ed/32.png) [@meezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/meezer)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2002, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/84 "2002-05-03T15:31:58Z")
1. Saying or doing something for the “umpteenth” time 2. I’d give my “eye teeth” … ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2002, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/85 "2002-05-03T18:38:26Z")
You’ve Got **Moxie** , Kid! b]Ice Box\*\* **Rube Goldberg** And my favorite, " Don’t go out without your **rubbers** on." ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2002, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/86 "2002-05-03T18:45:09Z")
[Shinola](http://http://www.pottymouth.org/humor/shinola.html) ---
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2002, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/87 "2002-05-03T18:52:05Z")
Here are a couple…I actually used the first two this week… “Aint nobody here but us chickens”… which I know is a song…but I use when one of my residents want to talk confidentially. “Everything is tickety-boo”… I am pretty sure its British, but I have no origins on that. And “a real loose cannon”… describing new troublemaker at work… ---
**Author:** ![Terrorcotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dbc845/32.png) [@Terrorcotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrorcotta)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2002, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/88 "2002-05-03T19:06:04Z")
“Let’s make like a banana and split” "Why don’t you make like a hockey stick and get the puck outta here?’ “gibbering in eldritch horror” (nod to Lovecraft) “Momen-ems” (As in, “My Mother and Her Friends”) ---
**Author:** ![Elenfair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cc9497/32.png) [@Elenfair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elenfair)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2002, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/89 "2002-05-03T19:11:34Z")
I use “Hark” a lot. And “Lo!”… and everything is spiffy. I’m also insane. Certifiable. Come by, I’ll show you my certificate. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Elenfair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cc9497/32.png) [@Elenfair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elenfair)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2002, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/90 "2002-05-03T19:12:47Z")
oh… and “mark” too. (as in “I pray you, mark!”) ---
**Author:** ![Pixellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e495f1/32.png) [@Pixellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixellent)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2002, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/91 "2002-05-04T15:59:04Z")
Some of my own personal favorites (please excuse any duplications, but do you know how hard it is to browse through dozens and dozens of antiquated colloqualisms? Can you even _say_ that five times fast? For that matter, can I? But I digress): “Criminentlies!” (A favorite of my father’s, who also liked to exclaim “Christ in the foothills!” It is pronounced **cry-min-ent-leez** , for those who worry about such things.) “That’s the kind of hairpin I am.” “That suits me down to the ground.” (Very Victorian – in fact I think it lodged in my brain the first time Dr. Watson said it in a Conan Doyle story.) “That’s jake with me.” “Holy underwear!” (No, sorry – that’s a line from _Blazing Saddles_.) “Ye Gods and holy catfish!” (I don’t say this too often – you can imagine the looks I get.) “God willin’ and the creek don’t rise.” (A very strange thing for a man who has spent his entire life on the East Coast to say.) ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Creant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b487fb/32.png) [@Miss\_Creant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Creant)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2002, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/92 "2002-05-07T02:40:02Z")
ok, I believe I still use just about all of those, but does anyone else ever say, “what a maroon!” courtesy of the Warner Bros. cartoons from the 40’s and 50’s? ---
**Author:** ![Com2Kid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4af34b/32.png) [@Com2Kid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Com2Kid)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2002, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/93 "2002-05-07T04:20:07Z")
I am surprised to find that some of these are considered old fashioned. As for myself I have been known to use Yes Madam from time to time (Yes Sir is still common but apparently Yes Madam or Yes Mam is considered quite archaic, at least from the various responses I have gotten from it.) In the past I also had this awful habit of at random times in a conversation of uncontrollably dropping into Shakespearean English, to the horror of those around me. Thankful I got over _that_ one (after two or three years. . . .) I still use Thee and Thou, to the horror of any literary teacher that I may have at the time, as they technically cannot find fault with it but it still gives them the shivers. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![mrunlucky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7993a0/32.png) [@mrunlucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mrunlucky)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/94 "2003-04-11T07:46:20Z")
Years back I picked up “You can throw it into the river” from an old woman who was expressing distaste for something. I really have no idea what the original meaning is, or if she just came up with it on her own. My mother used to say things like “Well I’ll be”; “No reason to get your dander up”; “Bucko!” (to call someone down to size); “For Christ’s sake”’ (maybe not so obscure but I haven’t heard it “in ages”); “Going to hell in a handbasket”; “I’ll give him/her the old ‘what for’” (I don’t know what the ‘what for’ is though, but it apparently wasn’t something you’d want). ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/95 "2003-04-11T11:05:18Z")
I often enjoy the curse-words used by 19th-century gentlemen. “Damme!” (two syllables) is a personal favorite. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/96 "2003-04-11T11:28:00Z")
> [@](#): > > “Well, I swan” I think this is just a regionalism and was never in the mainstream vernacular. Not a regionalism, but it has a “country” flavor to it. I was surprised to find Grandma Duck saying it in an old Disney comic. > [@](#): > > A friend of mine and I refer to movies as “the flickers.” We don’t know why. I don’t know why you use that phrase (although I still sometimes call movies “flicks”), but the term comes from the old silent days, when film speeds were much slower and you _could_ actually see the intensity on the screen “flicker”. Back around 1960, Jay Ward and Bill Scott (of **Rocky and Bullwinkle** ) did a short-lived show called “Fractured Flickers”, in which they cut together old silent films and added their own commentary. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/97 "2003-04-11T11:39:04Z")
dr\_mom\_mcl has been known to say Heavens to Murgatroyd. The weirdest one was this guy who worked on my campaign in 2002, of undetermined origin (possibly German or continental French, but definitely not anglophone), whose favourite curse for some reason was " 'Sblood!" ---
**Author:** ![Phouchg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/41988e/32.png) [@Phouchg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phouchg)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/98 "2003-04-11T12:34:46Z")
well, I think this thread is _the tops!_ ---
**Author:** ![Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/57b2e6/32.png) [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/99 "2003-04-11T12:52:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by matt\_mcl \* > \*\*dr\_mom\_mcl has been known to say Heavens to Murgatroyd. The weirdest one was this guy who worked on my campaign in 2002, of undetermined origin (possibly German or continental French, but definitely not anglophone), whose favourite curse for some reason was " 'Sblood!" \*\* Believe that’s a shortened form of “God’s blood”, or maybe “Jesus’ blood”. (Just like “Zounds!” means “God’s Wounds!”.) ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2003, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/100 "2003-04-11T14:20:07Z")
One of our family’s catch phrases is “Well, I should hope to kiss a pig”, which seems to shift meaning depending on intonation. Normally used to express (sarcastic) astonishment or disbelief. When I was visiting my folks a couple of weeks ago, my mom came out with “They played in their usual come day, go day, God bless Sunday fashion” (referring to the AZ Wildcats basketball team, I think). I’d never heard that phrase before in my life. Day to day, I use “well, that’s just ducky!”, “ye gods and little fishes”, “bloody hell”, and a few other phrases I’ll no doubt think of as soon as I post this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286.md?page=6)