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Where Does It Come From? Origins Of Phrases & Expressions

hunck said:
Not a phrase, just a word.

It occurred to me that the use of ‘twig’ to mean understand as opposed to a small branch is odd. Looking it up it could possibly originate from the Irish ‘tuig’ with the same meaning although it’s not certain.

There’s a reference of it’s use dated 1796.

The African/American ‘dig’ could be a later relation - you dig?
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It also sounds to the "tuit" component of "intuit."
 
"Pigs might fly" meaning something outrageously unlikely ever to occur may possibly date back to the time of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1278).

The Italian Dominican friar was a quiet, studious and gentle person who, if the account is to be believed, as a young man was regarded as a bit simple by his fellow monks. One day they decided to play a prank on him by calling him over to a window crying “Thomas, come and see! There are pigs flying in the sky!”
Thomas duly walked over and gazed out of the window, to the laughter of his fellow monks.
He silenced them though by declaring "I would rather believe pigs can fly, than that my brothers would lie to me."

Probably apocryphal, but a great story!
 
blessmycottonsocks said:
"Pigs might fly" meaning something outrageously unlikely ever to occur may possibly date back to the time of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225–1278).

The Italian Dominican friar was a quiet, studious and gentle person who, if the account is to be believed, as a young man was regarded as a bit simple by his fellow monks. One day they decided to play a prank on him by calling him over to a window crying “Thomas, come and see! There are pigs flying in the sky!”
Thomas duly walked over and gazed out of the window, to the laughter of his fellow monks.
He silenced them though by declaring "I would rather believe pigs can fly, than that my brothers would lie to me."

Probably apocryphal, but a great story!
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Reminds me of when I tried to warn someone about an upcoming disaster and they silenced me with 'That might be true but I'd rather believe you were telling lies.'
Er, yeah. :dunno:
 
escargot said:
Reminds me of when I tried to warn someone about an upcoming disaster and they silenced me with 'That might be true but I'd rather believe you were telling lies.'
Er, yeah. :dunno:
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Remember this?
 

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The polari words I'm particularly fond of are:

Lilly law/orderly daughters, for the police

Nanti handbag, for having no money

And with the group of straight friends with whom I play cribbage, I've managed to sometimes get us to use the phrase "Nanti nineteen"
when getting a no point hand (nineteen is an impossible score)
 
eburacum said:
Surprisingly, 'Cheese it!' (run away) is attested from Britain in the early 19th century.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cheese_it
I've only ever heard it on Futurama.
cheese-it-bender.gif
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'Cheese it' as used by video gamers is something else. I guess it means 'to cheat a bit'.
Beating tasks or enemies through tactics that while not exactly cheating, are certainly not following Queensbury rules. When you cheese a game, you're exploiting systemic quirks or apparent design oversights to gain maximum advantage for minimum skill or effort.
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It struck me that ‘parky’ meaning cold is a bit odd & on looking up the origin, nobody seems to know but there’s a citation from 1895. Don’t know where from though. It sounds a bit North country to me.
 
hunck said:
It struck me that ‘parky’ meaning cold is a bit odd & on looking up the origin, nobody seems to know but there’s a citation from 1895. Don’t know where from though. It sounds a bit North country to me.
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I have never heard of that word.
 
I wonder when Inuit-style parka hooded coats first appeared in Britain? Did someone start talking about being a bit parky, meaning it was cold enough to wear their parka?
 
hunck said:
It struck me that ‘parky’ meaning cold is a bit odd & on looking up the origin, nobody seems to know but there’s a citation from 1895. Don’t know where from though. It sounds a bit North country to me.
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I've always known the phrase 'parky' as to mark a drop in temperature, meaning the feeling of introducing a cold draft, or colder air, making things feel unnecessarily chillier - taking, or giving it as a bit of an off-the-cuff way of pointing out to someone else to shut the door (barn door, put the wood in the hole, etc) as it's creating a draft. Like leaving the door ajar is like opening the doorway up to letting in the chillier air i.e. (field, park etc).
 
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Stormkhan said:
In some regions, especially Nottingham, someone who declares it "a bit parky" is met with "don't be so nesh!"
'Nesh' is, as far as I'm aware, being sensitive to cold.
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Yes, nesh in Derbyshire too.

Does anyone remember these coats?
I wonder how many kids were run over due to not being able to see properly.
Damn good in the cold though;
 

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hunck said:
It struck me that ‘parky’ meaning cold is a bit odd & on looking up the origin, nobody seems to know but there’s a citation from 1895. Don’t know where from though. It sounds a bit North country to me.
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Yep - where I am from (Leigh, Lancashire) 'parky' means cold. For example "Bloody hell, it's a bit parky out".

A term I hadn't heard until I met my wife, who is from just 10 miles down the road in Warrington, is 'Nesh'. Meaning someone who is always cold. As in "Make sure you turn the heating up before Aunty June arrives, you know she's nesh".

I got introduced to a lot of old Lancashire slang through my Grandma who spoke a lot of broad Lancashire dialect. Hypocritically, if us grandkids uttered any of those words she'd clips us round the ear and tell us off for "Talking Broad".

Some examples of words she used.

Steers - Stairs
Wayter - Water
Essole - The space under the coal fire where the ash dropped. We think this meant "Ash Hole".

We used to listen to the album Deep Lancashire which had songs by the likes of the Oldham Tinkers, Mike Harding and Bernard Wrigley.
https://www.mikeharding.co.uk/recordings/deep-lancashire/
 
Floyd1 said:
Yes, nesh in Derbyshire too.

Does anyone remember these coats?
I wonder how many kids were run over due to not being able to see properly.
Damn good in the cold though;
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I used to have one of these when I was in Junior school back in the late 70s. We used to turn them upside down with our feet in the zipped up hood and have hopping races across the playground. It must have drove my mum bonkers having to keep cleaning it.
 
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