Words you've only heard your parents use for things

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

My Mum calls the cupboard under the stairs the 'spence' and I've never heard anyone else call it that or use that word.

My mum always said "Will you side that table " when she wanted me to clear it. Think it's a Northern word.

'Going down the street' - going shopping
'Agate' as in to do something, 'she was agate outside'
My gran (Lancashire) used to say these.

My MIL calls mugs “pots”.

We call the alley running beside our house the snicket. Parents called it this as they live round corner and when I moved in directly next to it I kept calling it that. Dh calls it snicket or ginnel. We're early 30s.

The Dickens
A dickens of
Origin
late 16th century: a euphemism for ‘devil’, probably a use of the surname Dickens

My grandad used to call snails hodneydods. No idea whether it was a dialect word or one he'd just made up.....

My nana used to call the remote the giggling box

I still use Oxters, as another poster pointed out it’s a well known/used term in Scotland

As for the gazunder (animal with shorter legs on one side for running around hills) we say that haggis have those so they won’t be caught in January for burns supper night

My gran called her kitchen the "kitchenette" - I think because there was a table and chairs in it to eat? Haven't heard it since she died.

Also a poke of chips!

Has anyone else heard of slattering the sugar? If you spill a little of the spoon it is slattered

Anyone else say togs for swimming things ?

coconuttelegraph SimplySteveRedux

a muff warmer is a perfectly respectable thing

I'm being pedantic but 'muff warmer' doesn't make sense! As your links demonstrate, 'muff' in that context = hand warmer.

Not muff warmer tho, that's not a thing!

The only person I ever heard use the phrase ‘pass a motion’ as a euphemism for a bowel movement was my DF.
I only discovered it was a Parliamentary term as an adult!

Anyone else say togs for swimming things ?

Yes, say this here too. Very often used in Ireland.

myidentitymycrisis

That's really commonly used in a medical context though?

My mum still refers to the "lav" instead of toilet. Or the "lafftotty" if she is in the mood for a bit of rib-tickling wordplay. See also "chish and fips." Bless.

I must say that I do wince a little when I read books set during WW2, when they talk about the toilet, I really do think it would have been lavatory or lav.

Counterpane (bedspread) - I know that's just archaic, rather than a made up word.

Dimpsy - when the light isn't great, like around dusk and you might think it's time to put the light on. I say it too and DH finds it hilarious.

My grandfather used to say Scut Baba as a term of endearment. I think it means baby rat!
He would also tell us to stop our jig acting when we were messing around. Jiggery pokery was another common phrase for messing around or if something was a bit tricky. My DH doesn't believe me that they are real phrases

Omg my parents have a 'glory hole' at the top of stairs. They still call it that despite me informing them of the alternative meaning.
And it's black over our Jacks mothers in their house!

Also lozzacking as in stop lozzacking on the sofa.

He's a wazzock.
Jasper for a wasp

Jiggery pokery was another common phrase for messing around or if something was a bit tricky. My DH doesn't believe me that they are real phrases

You can tell him from me that it's a real phrase. My father used to say it.

My dad said "chish and fips" in fun. Also "Kate and Sidney pie." Water was Adam's ale, and he would often call an egg a "cackleberry."

@Larlarleighlee born in the 60s, NI. We always called it the scullery and kitchen.
Also armpits known as oxters.
One we used for nits was bausies.
Dad always said simmet for a vest.
Up the dibby doos for up the stairs.

My dear parents apparently made each other roar with laughter at about 4 am one morning when they simultaneously said 'there's a rat in the wainscoting'.

Going for the messages

My mum used to call stag beetles Charlie Beetles