# "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:** 10\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/101 "2003-04-12T05:02:01Z")
You folks are a bunch of weirdos. I’ll have no truck with you! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/102 "2003-04-12T05:29:32Z")
> [@](#): > > If you’re referring to the patent balderdash of the statement that the word “jay-walker” didn’t appear in print until 1917 and the arrival of the horseless carriage, I have some 1905 Winsor McKay comic strips to share with you. Hey, let’s not get personal here. But to contribute, I recall my grandmother (born 1900) using the phrase “man on the moon” to describe the epitome of ignorance, as in: “He no more knows how to run a business than the man on the moon.” And I was surprised when I heard my brother-in-law, a native Texan, call someone a peckerhead. I had never heard anyone say this with a straight face before. But I guess that’s more of a redneck-ism than an antiquity. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/103 "2003-04-12T07:03:10Z")
I think I must have missed a few pages of the thread somewhere. Here’s a few of my favorites that I use all of the time. And, yes, I do get strange looks … **Golly Gee Whillikers** As in, “wow!” **Fritterpated** As in frazzled. **Me bucko** Informal term of address. **Kabloona** Derisive term from a WC Fields movie. [Well baloney, Mahoney, Malarkey, you big Kabloona!] **Dang nab it!** Mild oath **Va va voom** Verbal substitute for a wolf whistle. **Neatarino** Replaced by, “cool!” **Verschluginer** From MAD Magazine. Old Yiddish idiom. Mild oath. **Left handed catawumpus** Vague descriptor. **Febelvetzer** Another MAD magazine inarticulate noun. **See you in the funny papers** Informal goodbye. **Tommyrot!** Bringlish for “garbage!” **Horseradish!** Slang for “garbage!” **Horsefeathers!** Slang for “garbage!” **Horse Hockey!** Slang for “garbage!” **Bull Hockey!** Slang for “garbage!” **Malarkey!** Slang for “garbage!” **Bull’s pizzle!** Derisive Shakespearean comment. **A mare’s nest** Legendary yet elusive item. **Hen’s Teeth** Legendary yet elusive item. **Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?** Derisive goodbye. **Heaven the thought** (Used in conjunction with “Perish Forbid!”) **Stylin’** Departing **Rainlocker** Canuck for the shower stall. **What a duck!** Derisive term for a lamewad. **Hot Dang Dilly!** Emphatic exclamation. **Shuckey Darn!** Emphatic exclamation. **What a wahoo!** A yokel. **Yokel** See wahoo. **Smart as a whip** Praise. **Silly goose!** Mild insult. **Dunderhead** Dolt **Christmas List** Roster of enemies. **Holy Moses!** Mild oath. **Whosit** Inarticulate noun **Whatsit** Inarticulate noun **Whatchamacallit** Inarticulate noun **Thingummie** Inarticulate noun **Thingumajig** Inarticulate noun **Thingamabob** Inarticulate noun **Humma ding ding** Inarticulate noun **Homina homina** Inarticulate stammer (Ralph Kramden) **The dog’s bark** Superlative **Pull up a chair and sit on the floor.** Informal welcome. **Sit down and make yourself homely.** Informal welcome. **Ver gingle dingin’!** My own inarticulate expletive. I’ll think of some more later. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/104 "2003-04-12T07:11:11Z")
**Finagle** To inveigle ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/105 "2003-04-12T07:25:04Z")
**Ratso!** Mild oath **Mouse nuts** Anything truly minor. **Clear as mud** Something non-obvious. ---
**Author:** ![shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/106 "2003-04-12T12:20:34Z")
Blast! mild oath ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/107 "2003-04-12T15:55:52Z")
**Sozzled** Sodden or drunk **Shoes are too tight** Describing an irritable person **Hoo hah** Outcry or shrugging off of something **Brou-hah-hah** Imbroglio **To beat the band** Superlative **Headed south for the winter** Out of commission or departed **On the Fritz** Inoperative **On the blink** Inoperative **Crusin’ for a brusin’** Asking for trouble **Bling blanged!** Mild oath **Poppycock!** Bringlish for ‘garbage!’ ---
**Author:** ![j.c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@j.c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j.c)\ **Post date:** [April 12, 2003, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/108 "2003-04-12T16:38:19Z")
…and the horse you rode in on. **peckerhead** is the only word I have every heard used both by white people to criticize other white people and by black people to criticize white people. And I mean in a nasty way. I’ve never head a white person call another person a cracker in a nasty way. And I’ve never heard a white person call another white person ofay. Has anyone noticed that the current vogue for Snoop-styel shizzle nizzle is, in addition to being a new element in the ageless tradition of nonsense, a lot like Tin Pan Alley nonsense and the later work of Ish Kabibble, such as “Mairzy Doats”? ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/109 "2003-04-13T13:27:50Z")
I’m fond of both ’ You’re the cat’s pajamas’ and ‘You’re the bees knees’. I was recently exposed to " too cool for school " and I find that to be acceptable. 🙂 Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 13, 2003, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286/110 "2003-04-13T13:32:04Z")
My brother and I call each other “cracker” all the time. I used to call my black students “cracker” just to make them laugh. “Now LaQuandra, stop being a cracker.” Worked like a charm. Student can’t stay angry with you while laughing. Ooh, and I like “right as rain”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/aw-nerts-antiquated-phrases-youve-heard-or-used/106286.md?page=5)