# Post slang you don't understand **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 1, 2003, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312 "2003-08-01T07:22:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Taciturn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cab0a1/32.png) [@Taciturn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taciturn)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/21 "2003-08-01T14:57:24Z")
I’ve been a lurker for quite some time now, but today I’ve gathered up my courage and I’m posting for the first time! I would love to know what it means when you call someone a “Babette”. ---
**Author:** ![Blonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Blonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blonde)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/22 "2003-08-01T15:08:39Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Taciturn \* > \*\*I’ve been a lurker for quite some time now, but today I’ve gathered up my courage and I’m posting for the first time! > > I would love to know what it means when you call someone a “Babette”. \*\* Welcome!! You pose a difficult question, one I’d better let your fellow Canadians answer… Two West Texas expressions my mom always uses: “Sakes alive!” and “Great day in the morning!” I understand their meaning (expressing surprise/dismay/shock) - but, how can a day be in a morning, and sakes be alive?? ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/23 "2003-08-01T15:12:59Z")
Well, isn’t is possible that a day could look great in the morning, but then look not so great as the day transpires? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/24 "2003-08-01T15:14:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by owlstretchingtime \* > Any ideas me old chinas? No idea but I wonder if it might be a sensitive reference to his disability rather than rhyming (e.g vegetable, or similar) Kind of like a while ago ‘Mong’ was slang for someone being stupid (Mongol). I don’t even know where ‘Minger’ came from . . . ? ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/25 "2003-08-01T15:32:00Z")
“minger” is an odd one. When I was a fledgling, to “ming” meant to stink and we would refer to farts as “the ming from my ring”. We always used the phrase “munters” to mean ugly people. A boy with little luck in the dating stakes (actually, being england in the 70s this should be the copping-off stakes) would be called a “munter-hunter.” Fingers and tops any one? ---
**Author:** ![Blonde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3be4f8/32.png) [@Blonde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blonde)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/26 "2003-08-01T15:37:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*Well, isn’t is possible that a day could look great in the morning, but then look not so great as the day transpires? 😉 \*\* Well, I’ll be! That makes perfect sense… 😛 You wouldn’t happen to know what “goodness gracious” means, would you? Seems redundant… ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/27 "2003-08-01T16:10:54Z")
I don’t understand anything **owlstretchingtime** says. ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/28 "2003-08-01T16:14:50Z")
I spent years being puzzled by IANAL. I got it set in my mind that it meant "I am not Anal (as in retentive), or I am Anal. I was always troubled that it didn’t seem to make sense in that context. Of course the meaning seems obvious in retrospect. ---
**Author:** ![owlstretchingtime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/958977/32.png) [@owlstretchingtime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/owlstretchingtime)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/29 "2003-08-01T16:18:14Z")
it’s the queens innit? As spoken in Sarf. Blimey are you a bit dagenham? i know most lemons are a bit doolally (not to mention completely radio), but strewth, ask your spars when you’re down the nuclear having a few don revies, they’ll give you the coo. ---
**Author:** ![Stuffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f17d59/32.png) [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/30 "2003-08-01T16:35:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by verbenabeast \* > \*\*well… that’s the hizzel for shizzel, my brizzel. \*\* I believe this is newer slang for possibly: That hit is the sh#t, bro or That is some good reefer my friend. Why is the scene Jive seen from Airplane going through my mind right now? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rue\_DeDay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/41988e/32.png) [@Rue\_DeDay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rue_DeDay)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/31 "2003-08-01T17:10:33Z")
Now you’re just making things up **Owl**. Stop it. ---
**Author:** ![Avarie537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@Avarie537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Avarie537)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/32 "2003-08-01T17:15:20Z")
When I first heard “bling bling,” my best friend actually asked the guy what it meant (because I wasn’t going to)! (He was a friend’s BF.) ---
**Author:** ![B.Serum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/b.serum/32/14266_2.png) [@B.Serum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/B.Serum)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/33 "2003-08-01T17:16:35Z")
WTF is bling-bling? I’d just like to add that whatever TF it is, it is the stupidest expression since renaming pizza “za”. ---
**Author:** ![Journeyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/779978/32.png) [@Journeyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Journeyman)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/34 "2003-08-01T17:41:45Z")
Isn’t that totally spam? It’s lubricated! Oh well, I’m phasing. ---
**Author:** ![austen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@austen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/austen)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/35 "2003-08-01T17:42:07Z")
“Bling-bling” is an adjective for something that is jazzed-up, showy and/or ostentatious; i.e. jewelry, cars, etc. And, in one of the websites below, TEETH. [http://www.drivenbyboredom.com/bling.htm](http://www.drivenbyboredom.com/bling.htm) [http://www.mrbling.com/](http://www.mrbling.com/) It comes from the sound of heavy gold (or more recently platinum) necklaces bouncing off each other, and started as hip-hop slang but has been more widely used lately. It was also a hip-hop/rap song in the late nineties: [http://www.lyricstime.com/lyrics/31804.html](http://www.lyricstime.com/lyrics/31804.html) ---
**Author:** ![Sejal\_Traurig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Sejal\_Traurig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sejal_Traurig)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/36 "2003-08-01T17:42:14Z")
The one I never got is **Built Like A Brick Outhouse** where sometimes outhouse is replaced by sh!thouse… Seem like saying someone is in any way resembling an outhouse isn’t a compliment, but any time I’ve heard it, the context is supposed to be positive… ---
**Author:** ![austen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@austen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/austen)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/37 "2003-08-01T17:49:54Z")
I think “Built Like a Brick Shithouse” means someone who is, um, _solidly_ constructed, ifyaknowwhatImean. ---
**Author:** ![DogMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9c0ed/32.png) [@DogMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DogMom)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/38 "2003-08-01T17:50:56Z")
Speaking off the top of my head (or, to make **Marley** happy, “speaking out of my ass”), the phrase _butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth_ means something like “she thinks she shits roses”. She thinks she’s better than us by a damsite. That sort of thing. Now, as to **why** that phrase should mean that, I have no idea. Maybe her butter is candy-coated and only melts in her hands? I’d like to chime in with the “me too” on bling-bling. And I’ve gathered from contextual references that “WORD” now means something along the lines of “ditto” only moreso? Connoting extreme approval? And does anyone know why / how it got that way? ---
**Author:** ![FlyingDragonFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c89c15/32.png) [@FlyingDragonFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingDragonFan)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/39 "2003-08-01T19:07:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Satisfying Andy Licious \* > For me, it’s “take the piss out of (subject)”. > If you take the piss out of someone, wouldn’t you be doing them a favor? I always took this to reference the saying “full of piss and vinegar,” meaning being energetic, with a touch of unruliness thrown in. So taking the piss out of someone would mean somehow deflating their energetic quality, perhaps by ridicule, as **AngelicGemma** says. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sejal\_Traurig \* > The one I never got is Built Like A Brick Outhouse where sometimes outhouse is replaced by sh!thouse. [Cecil has spoken.](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/030704.html) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [August 1, 2003, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312/40 "2003-08-01T19:16:49Z")
The idea with the gift horse thing is that checking the health of the horse implies you don’t trust the person who is giving it to you. It’s like you’re saying “I think you’d mislead me and give me a broken-down old nag.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-slang-you-dont-understand/192312.md?page=3)