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You daft apeth

416 replies

Kasterborous · 30/10/2013 08:50

No, not you but I heard this phrase yesterday and haven't heard it for ages. We used to say it when anyone had done something daft, but in a lighthearted way.

Another old favourite is 'crosspatch' as in 'don't be a crosspatch' when someone is being -well - cross.

OP posts:
Kasterborous · 30/10/2013 08:52

Meant to add, so what are your favourite similar phrases that you don't hear much these days.

OP posts:
GiddyStars · 30/10/2013 08:53

I say these to my DC. I'm in my twenties Blush I think one day I just woke up and had turned into my mother...

I hope nobody comes along and says they have awful underlying connotations now!

thepurplepenguin · 30/10/2013 08:54

I like it too, but isn't it daft ha'porth? Ie half a penny's worth...

Jacksterbear · 30/10/2013 08:55

My great aunt used that phrase. Also, she used to call me a little rum'un (as in, funny little thing). I used to wonder, as a child, what on earth a Rumman was!

FacebookWanker · 30/10/2013 08:55

'I'll be down on you like a ton of bricks'....perhaps it's just something that teachers say...

DanielHellHoundMcSpaniel · 30/10/2013 08:57

My dad has taught DS1 to say "Xxxx Xxxx ain't no good, chop him up for firewood" about his baby brother which I remember my grandparents often saying to us as children and don't hear very much now. I haven't revealed the existence of the other two lines yet. (When he's dead we'll boil his head and eat him up with lava bread)

FacebookWanker · 30/10/2013 09:00
FacebookWanker · 30/10/2013 09:01
AnkaretLestrange · 30/10/2013 09:02

Yes it's ha'porth or something. Means half a penny,

I always say wreck of the Hesperus about the state of my hair.

AnkaretLestrange · 30/10/2013 09:02

Or the wild woman of Borneo, whoever she was.

Lurleene · 30/10/2013 09:06

Oh I always thought it was daft dapeth Blush. I feel silly now.

Mind you I always thought the saying was "your room looks like a bomsytit" til I got called out on it as an adult.

roadwalker · 30/10/2013 09:07

I use ha'porth all the time- the kids think I'm nuts! I have just learned how to spell it
I also say- I'm not standing around like cheese at 4pence- when waiting for them
I use wild woman of Borneo to describe my or DD's hair

AnyCluffyflumpFucker · 30/10/2013 09:10

I love 'daft apeth'! I use it on my lot. I did think an Apeth was a huge, hairy, creature, like 'big foot' Grin.

DH tells DC to 'pack it in!'.
I always laugh and tell him that it's such a Dad thing to say. I have only ever heard Dads say it and I thought it was left back in the 80s!

DawnOfTheDee · 30/10/2013 09:11

Aw that brings back memories of childhood. My dad was forever calling me a daft apeth.

I also got called Madam Patty if I was being, well, a little madam. Apparently Madam Patty was a welsh opera singer. This may have been specific to my family.

Oh and a 'cotton picking nuisance'. Very old school....

DawnOfTheDee · 30/10/2013 09:12

I thought an apeth was a big foot too AnyCluffy!

Also, vexed. Vexed is a dad word too.

TrumptonVandal · 30/10/2013 09:14

"Bomsytit" Grin PMSL!

AnkaretLestrange · 30/10/2013 09:15

Get stuffed is such a retro insult I think.

AnkaretLestrange · 30/10/2013 09:16

Or if there is no pop in the house I tell dd to drink some cooperation pop.

Pop! That is also so old fashioned. Like bottles of panda pop which the milkman used to deliver.

Lovecat · 30/10/2013 09:18

I used looking like the Wreck of the Hesperus last week to some twenty-somethings and they looked at me like '....what?'

In our family we used to say Wild Woman of Borneo until Jonathan Ross (I think) popularised that cheesy film Wild Women of Wongo in the mid-80's, so that's what we tend to say now :)

A local one where I grew up was 'don't stand there like one of Lewises', which was a reference to the shop dummies in the window of Lewises Department Store in Liverpool (and not, as is commonly assumed, the nekkid statue on the front of the building with the enormous willy).

One my mum thankfully no longer says is 'you jammy Arab' to describe someone lucky. I'm not sure where Arab came into it, she's Irish and grew up in the Midlands...

We also use 'mither' for bother (as in 'sorry to mither you') which isn't heard so much these days.

GemmaTeller · 30/10/2013 09:18

'get your neb out' as in 'don't be so nosy'

'going down t' ginnel' as in ' I'm going via the back street'

'chips wibbits' as in 'chips with batter scraps'

DH is a southerner, I wind him up all the time with northern phrases Grin

DawnOfTheDee · 30/10/2013 09:18

I still say 'a tin of fizzy pop'! People look at me like I should be on display somewhere...

We used to have a pop man that delivered. Our milkman was not into diversification.

GemmaTeller · 30/10/2013 09:19

"Bomsytit" Grin

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AnkaretLestrange · 30/10/2013 09:22

I love mithering, it's so northern.

I am from the west county, we call gym shoes daps, people from other parts of the country look Hmm at the word and/or take the piss.

Lovecat · 30/10/2013 09:23

We also have a family-only one that comes from my mum's childhood best friend and her habit of bringing her back a hideous ornament from their family holiday each year. "A present from Rhyl" is the phrase used to describe something utterly useless that normally you'd chuck away but manners/something else prevents you :)

KirjavaTheCorpse · 30/10/2013 09:23

Ratbag!

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