Cat got your tongue?
 

First let's do the title.

"Cat got your tongue?" is a nonsense question that you ask when someone is being unusually quiet and not talking. You often see this used by an adult to try to get a child to tell them what they are thinking about. It started around the 18th century according to sources.

goot thread...
 

Thanks for your contribution Puddin!! I never knew that! I use this line a lot, it's great to know more about what that saying means. Only 1976? I thought it was as old as the opera!

I like your choice. What kind of sayings do you have in New Zealand? I bet you know lots.

yesterday while Ms Cinn and I were doing my run from Mass to Maine and back we were talking and we were talking about ppl who had kids and someone would say "they spit and had that kid"

To us down south it means that the kid is a spitting image of the parent. That no one else was involved in the production of the kid

Ms Cinn told me she never knew what it meant but had been told it before by others I was glad to help out

Nifty!! I've never heard that one before. OH!! I learned something new today!

I tend to be overly serious, which irritated my coworkers to the point that they nicknamed me Lilith (as in Cheers). I'm not traditionally funny, but I can deadpan an idiom like nobody's business.

My favorite is more than you can shake a stick at.

My second favorite, which I use regularly at my job where I'm dealing with non-custodial parents who don't pay their child support, is in the pudding club.

Idioms, if utilized in a proper droll tone, can really throw people off-balance.

Don't bite your nose to spite your face.

Some of my favorites:

All Talk, No Trousers

(UK) Someone who is "all talk and no trousers" talks about doing big, important things, but doesn't take any action.

A corruption of the phrases:

"All mouth and trousers"

Blustering and boastful, showing off without having the qualities to justify it. There is a suggestion that this is a corruption of a more logical, but rarely heard expression, 'all mouth and no trousers'. meaning full of talk but deficient in the sexual area. The phrase originated in northern England." The definition is "superficial, engaging in empty, boastful talk, but not of real substance".

A less racy version is "all talk and no action"

It also has a female analogy "all fur coat and no knickers", which is defined as "of a woman, all superficial appearance and no real substance beneath".


The pot calling the kettle black

Or as I prefer: "Hello Pot, this is Kettle calling..."

(UK) Is usually used in the sense of accusing someone of hypocrisy.

The origins of the phrase date back to at least the 1600s, when several writers published books or plays which included wordplays on this theme. Despite suggestions that the phrase is racist or nonsensical, the meaning is actually quite obvious when one considers the conditions of a medieval kitchen.

Typically, pots and kettles were made from heavy materials like cast iron to ensure that they would last and hold up to heat. Cast iron tends to turn black with use, as it collects oil, food residue, and smoke from the kitchen. Both pots and kettles would also have been heated over an open fire in a kitchen. As a result, they would have become streaked with black smoke despite the best cleaning efforts.

Since both are black, the pot calling the kettle black would clearly be an act of hypocrisy. The act could also be described by “it takes one to know one,” and it suggests a certain blindness to one's personal characteristics.

One of my faves
 

"It Takes Two To Tango"

if there is a conflict, issue, indescrepancy both parties are culpable.

Origin:

A long standing cliché asserts that Tango originated in the brothels of Argentina. According to this cliché, men had to wait in line at the brothels, so madams employed Tango musicians to keep the men entertained while they waited. Alas, Tango historians have refuted this version and instead say that the dance originated in the lower class districts of Argentina but was first encountered by the wealthier classes in brothels. The brothels were one of the few places where the rich and poor rubbed elbows.

I have never heard it said this way before I was taught it was dont cut ur nose off in spite of your face

Southern Style
 

A wonderful neighbor said to her misbehaving daughter, "God don't like UGLY."

I had never heard that before, she regaled me with more, I have forgotten most of them, but she was a fountain of funny sayings. Needless to say, her embarrassed daughter straightened right up.

I love the South, warm wonderful funny peeps are everywhere!!

:rrose:

Read about it here: http://bloggingtothechoir.com/2009/1...ont-like-ugly/

and bob's your uncle...
 

Being Born & Raised in Texas
 

Here are some Southern Euphemisms

The cheese done slid off her cracker ~ she's not all there

Yer jumpier than a cat in a room full o' rockin chairs ~ nervous type

I don't trust you any further than I can throw ya

Gimme some sugar ~ give me a kiss

Yer wastin' daylight ~ more or less quit going so slow

Sweatin' like a hooker in church ~ nervous as hell or worried as hell

you look like you've been rode hard and put up wet ~ you look like you've had a rough day

I have a coworker who is famous for some her sayings ...

"I am busier than a one armed paper hanger"

"The clock is running faster than I am" (came in late)

I have used this at work before

"Make hay while the sun shines"

Meaning get on it before the opportunity is gone

Many decades ago in the Army I was stationed in the south and often heard these 2 sayings.....

"Well blow up my dress." Meaning to satisfy, make happy or excite

"Tired as a one legged man in a butt kicking contest"

Thank you DJ Bear, Mopsie, Venus 007, Sparkle, Puddin', So Sous Me, The Lady Snow, Semantics, Femm_CB, you have all contributed great and unforgetable expressions!!

I will have to start making note cards so I can start using them!

Colder than a witch's tits in a brass bra (more colorful than the word "freezing")

Useless as tits on a Boar Hog (pretty useless)

F**k me Buffy (think this is from watching too many episodes of Vampire Slayer)

Meaning:

In difficulty, faced with a choice between two unsatisfactory options.

Full story: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/b...ard-place.html

get the lead out

Also, get the lead out of one's feet or pants. Hurry up, move faster. For example, Get the lead out of your pants, kids, or we'll be late, or, even more figuratively, Arthur is the slowest talker--he can't seem to get the lead out and make his point. This expression implies that lead, the heaviest of the base metals, is preventing one from moving. [Slang; first half of 1900s]

Funny, I thought it had to do with buck shot or lead bullets, or some type of military theme. Humm. Gotta be more involved than this...

Unfortunately this term is used a lot in my industry.
 

LONG IN THE TOOTH

When a horse grows old its gums recede and if you examine its mouth it looks 'long in the tooth'.

"Putting some lead in your pencil." - from the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.": "To insert a foreign object into ones Urethra for the enhancement of sexual pleasure, especially during masterbation." On pg. 510 of "The Complete Kama Sutra", Lead dildos were preferably used more than wood or bone because of their "soft, yet pleasant roughness."

We called that Bum Fucked Egypt... No idea why

"For the Love of Pete" and "Honest to Pete"-probably from when using the word "God" in an expletive was considered blasphemy. "Pete" probably refers to St. Peter.

kiwi-isms...
 

A few from the north of England...

"Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs!"

"He was standing there, like piffy on a rock bun"

"He's all there with his lemon drops"

: )

Fabulous Snow White, thanks! I really enjoy learning more about how folks express themselves.

You're very welcome : )

i was raised in da south (n.c.)...
 

I have heard this happens to people also. :|

Actually the human ear continues to grow until death. And apparently so does the hair inside them ..... ewwwwww!
:phonegab:

Ohhhh I love this thread!! I am extremely interested in words, word origins and phraseology in general. There is a wonderful show on H2 called "America's Secret Slang" It even explains the origins of Y'all...and it's NOT what you think!

The Scot/Irish settled the south in a time when YE was the word for YOU. When they would talk about a group they would say Ye all....abbreviated to y'all! Fascinating stuff :)

They explain Trail blazing...so many things. I'm so enamored with that show!

Holy moley, so it's not Texas folks talking funny? Hee, hee, I say it. All the time. ;)