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.
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.
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.
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Saying or doing something for the “umpteenth” time
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I’d give my “eye teeth” …
You’ve Got Moxie, Kid!
b]Ice Box**
Rube Goldberg
And my favorite, " Don’t go out without your rubbers on."
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…
“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”)
I use “Hark” a lot. And “Lo!”… and everything is spiffy.
I’m also insane.
Certifiable.
Come by, I’ll show you my certificate.
oh… and “mark” too. (as in “I pray you, mark!”)
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.)
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?
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.
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).
I often enjoy the curse-words used by 19th-century gentlemen. “Damme!” (two syllables) is a personal favorite.
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.
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.
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!"
well, I think this thread is the tops!
Believe that’s a shortened form of “God’s blood”, or maybe “Jesus’ blood”. (Just like “Zounds!” means “God’s Wounds!”.)
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.