What words or phrases can you not remember the original of?

[MrsTerryPratchett]

I have two. Compost mental. I literally can't bring to mind what the Latin is. And the king who turned everything to gold will always be Creosote to me. That's to Terry Pratchett.

Have you got any words or phrases which have now erased the originals? Tell me I'm not alone.

Compos mentis, OP. Meaning of sound mind, sane.
And the King was Croesus, as in the phrase “as rich as Croesus”.

The king whose touch turned things to gold was Midas, by the way!

Wrong king even!

Tell me I'm not alone. Surely other people do this.

Our family one is the game Logo Grab. DH couldn’t remember what it was called and said “Brand Snatch”. That’s now what we call it and we have to think hard to remember its actual name.

We call soft play the squishy park.

I forget sometimes in normal conversations with adults that's its not called the squishy park.

Ooh @Pumpkinstace that reminds me as well - my son plays Fall Guys on the Xbox and I can never remember its name - I have to call it “stressful soft play”

@Pumpkinstace

We call soft play the squishy park.

I forget sometimes in normal conversations with adults that's its not called the squishy park.

It should be called that. Or hell. One or t'other.

My DD used to call her dressing gown her 'cosy' - its forever known as this in our house
Tonight I had trouble remembering the correct term for it

In our house the remote control is called The Twatter.

I’ve been known to forget this isn’t common parlance and refer to it as such in all seriousness, in polite company.

Does anyone know the origin of the phrase "More (whatever's) than you could shake a stick at"? I said it the other day and one of my children asked me what it meant but I didn't know. Google didn't help.
It makes no sense - I don'tknow why I say it. Why is there a limit of the number of things you can shake sticks and who what does stick shaking achieve anyway?

@Totallydefeated no it's an oofa doofa 🤷🏻‍♂️ but seriously there's so many names for a standard 'remote control' but why?

It's a blinger and it's my thread so I win.

Oh bugger, yep. My son had a speech impediment when he was very little and couldn't say Butlins so he called it Funland... fast forward 8 years and it is STILL Funland. Bit embarrassing in adult conversation. Also, we have a "clicker" that opens the garage door, fuck knows what it's actually called.

fuck knows what it's actually called.

And who cares? We should be able to name things randomly.