Hornswaggled
Miasma
Kerfuffle
Ah’m the posse-wrangler what corrals our weekly poker roundup.
So ah gits tuh use all sorts uh Cowboy Lingo in muh E-lectronical Schedulatin’ Missives. [e-mails]
Fav-o-rites?
Referrin’ to fellow cowpokes as rapscallions.
Or varmints
Guttersnipes
Mugwumps
Dunderheaded dough-heads
But not lickspittles… too many contradictory meanings.
So now I catch myself using olden words that really should make a comeback:
Bamboozle
Atwixt
Or Atwixt and Between (though that’s redundant)
Hornswoggle
Balderdash!
High-Falutin’
Flummux
The whole Kit and Caboodle
Beggin’ fer a Whuppin’
Fiddle Faddle
Picayune
Harum-Scarum
Fandango
Persnickity
Calling a cheap cuppa coffee a Belly Wash.
“Didjoo drabble that coat in the dirt?”
Ah swears, thet Donnie’s a Flannel Mouth Liar.”
“The dickens you say!”
And it’s always a botheration when there’s a boodle of barflies at the waterin’ hole.
The other day, I referred to someone bein’ lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut (reckons how ah got thet bun moe from Jed Clampett).
.
Or your undies in a bundle.
We now use boffins quite a bit at work. As in, “The boffins at treasury think that property prices will continue to rise.” Originally I used it in a presentation, intending it to be a term of derision, but it has been adopted in our team as a term of respect and endearment.
I listen to a lot of British audiobooks, and so I’ve heard and loved the term “boffins” for decades now.
or your knickers in a twist.
Defenestration.
As a former school bus driver, I can assure you that mass defenestration is a common fantasy on that job.
“Panties in a wad”, or “undies in an uproar.”
Just? Not what one would expect from an erudite sort of bloke but moist panties for you!
When someone says something outrageous I like to respond with pshaw!
In a pig’s eye!
I regularly use bamboozled and tarnation.
mmm
“To be honest…” should usually be replaced by “to be frank”. With the former phrase, I suggest that honesty is not my regular mode (as it may not be, but I probably don’t want to announce this) whereas “frank” indicates that I wouldn’t normally say this, but this time I simply must because it’s so important, or you’re so important.
Essentially, honesty is in preference to dishonesty, whereas frankness is in preference to silence.
I’d argue that ideally, frankness is in opposition to diplomacy / circumlocution / euphemism / courtesy. The charitable interpretation of “frank” is truthful, but unbuffered. And lacking in malice or aggression.
The less charitable use of “frank” is often a passive-aggressive sheep’s clothing for that which is exactly malicious or aggressive, and much more often an opinion than a fact.
IMO “frank” is a very loaded term I’d be disinclined to use.
My dearly departed grandmother used to refer to a bad person as a “louse”.
I used to have a boss who referred to lunch as “vittles”. I asked where he - a Jewish city boy - had learned the phrase.
“Granny from Beverly Hillbillies”, he told me.
My Dad was fond of “fink”. That’s a word we should use more.
A friend (and former coworker) and I were talking recently in the presence of my teenage daughter and her teenage grandsons. We referred to a former boss of ours (a sexual harasser and philanderer) as a “rake” and a “cad”.
The teens were dying laughing. Apparently these are practically Victorian terms to them.
They’re practically actually Victorian terms to me. I’d be laughing too. I’m 64.
They’re fun (and funny) precisely because they are so ridiculously anachronistic. Only people with monicles and spats should use words like this except as a joke.
We are bridge players. At 75 she’s often the kid in the group! In the last 35 years we’ve gone from the players talking about their children to grandchildren and now great grandchildren.
Yup. Time keeps on slippin, slippin, slippin away.
This whole thread can be summarized as “Steampunk English”. With more emphasis on the “steam” than the “punk”.
I also like, ‘not in good nick!’, instead junky or crappy.