As black as Newgates knocker, as the old man used to say ( refering to the weather on a bleak and rainy day)
When I was a child I remember my Father saying that someone who had very bad luck must have killed a chinaman.
I have no idea why that would be worse than killing anyone else but may have come from the goldfield days.
Referring to a putative, and otherwise unrecorded, Anglo-Australian superstition that killing a Chinese person brought about bad luck.
I've mentioned it on here before but I have never found out the origins of a Northern saying "he's standing there like pithy on a rock bun".
Age and etymology are uncertain; it existed in the 1930s and possibly derives from a music hall catchphrase. Some commentators (e.g. World Wide Words) suggest that piffy may have originally been patience, and the rock bun was simply a type of cake.
As an alternative to Piffy, my Grandma (and Mother) would sometimes say "left like a lilty". Lilty turns out to be Northern Irish: carefree person. Which made no sense as her family are solid Yorkshire. Well, until a genealogy turned up a 3 x great grandmother from Limerick who moved to England after the famine. If that is the source, it's amazing that an Irish expression has got passed down the generations.
An alternate version is that it derives from footballer Gerd Muller, a particularly nifty German short range goal poacher from the 70s who helped finish off many an opposing team. Doesn't seem to be a clear answer though.This British slang term came to wide public notice in the early 1990s, though it has certainly been around for much longer in the spoken language. Jonathon Green, in his Chambers Dictionary of Slang, suggests that one sense, to be badly beaten up, has been in UK prison slang since the 1950s.
Where it comes from is disputed. Jonathon Green suggests it’s a variant form of an older regional verb mull, to grind to powder, pulverise or crumble. He also notes that an alternative spelling is mullahed, suggesting some vaguely perceived Islamic connection, which the Oxford English Dictionary argues is a folk etymology.
In its recent revision of the term, the OED’s editors argue for a separate origin for the drunkenness sense from that of being beaten or destroyed. They agree the former is probably from the verb mull; they suggest it may be tied in with mulled for a hot spicy drink, where the link could be with the grinding of the spices. However, they suggest that the latter sense is from the British dialect of the gypsy language Romani, in which there is a stem mul-, derived from the verb “to die” (which, by the way, can be traced directly back to the Sanskrit origins of the Romani language).
Royalist soldiers stationed in or near Coventry would be totally ignored by the locals. Excluded from taverns and all merry making in general, the Royalists would be forced to endure a very miserable existence.
Way back in 1959 I was doing O level Latin. We were then told that it was a Roman expression. The Coventrians of the day resented their Roman invaders and as a protest, refused to speak with them. In consequence the Roman legionaires disliked being sent to Coventry
The Civil War origin seems more likely from the date, though it's 120 years after the event.1765 - Nov 4th. Mr John Barry having sent the fox hounds to a different place to what was ordered, and not meeting them himself at that place, was sent to Coventry, but returned upon giving six bottles of Claret to the hunt.
A couple of words or phrases which the people of Liverpool at least believe are exclusively local (seemingly confirmed by the internet) are "antwacky" an adjective meaning old fashioned and outdated, particularly in clothes or decor....
now what about "Meff" or "Mef", a derogatory term for a female, usually? My instinct was to connect it to the once-common sight of meths-drinkers but it was less specific and the gender was wrong. Backslang from female?
Radio 4? Wasn't she good?The phrase 'sent to Coventry' cropped up on a radio prog
What is the origin (and indeed meaning) of the (possibly Bringlish-only) term swit-swoo?
...
May be UK only, then, as I suspected. Exceedingly-common in the over-40s, and rare between Brits of lesser years.That's a new one on me
On a related note....what the bloody hell is that weird thing that British people over 40 do when they make a dangly beard/tentacles shape with their inverted hands under their chins, and say in a mocking high-pitched voice "Ooooh!!! Look at how he thinks he's a ______" (or something like that).May be UK only, then, as I suspected
No. It's very socially-acceptable. Inexplicably-soit would probably get you kicked out on the street where I live.
No. It's very socially-acceptable. Inexplicably-so
I'm puzzled. I can't understand how you could've missed this.I've never seen it - I'm fascinated
What is the origin (and indeed meaning) of the (possibly Bringlish-only) term swit-swoo?
On a related note....what the bloody hell is that weird thing that British people over 40 do when they make a dangly beard/tentacles shape with their inverted hands under their chins, and say in a mocking high-pitched voice "Ooooh!!! Look at how he thinks he's a ______" (or something like that).
It's a strange little understood (well, replicated) behavioural glitch, a gestalt shared shaming....action.
I bet a large sum of non-possessed money that this is mainly a British & Irish thing. Which makes me suddenly wonder if it might be a Father Tedism....or Blackadderism.....?