Have you ever used a word or phrase that you thought everyone knew but they didn't?

[CaramelJones]

Prompted by a discussion with a friend. When we first met she kept saying mardy and I had no idea what she meant.

Has anyone experienced similar with a regional word or a term that only your family use? It's making me wonder which regional words I might be using without thinking of it.

Skididdle - run away fast
Foxtrot - someone who walks funny

All fur coat and no drawers. Looked at me like I was bonkers.

In Ireland we use chockers too. I think it is short for "chock-a-block"

@RolyPolyLittleBatFacedGirl1 My grandfather (born east Shropshire 19th C, family there since the year dot) would do the toast too, where you make a circle with your glass while saying "To all around the Wrekin".

That little hill looms large!

@JenniferWooley I’m just over the bridge from Fife, so I’ll maybe let them off on jamp!
We also have bunker / kitchen side (worktop) and slater (woodlouse) as well.
The other one that mystified me at first was ‘dingys!’ meaning I don’t bleeding think so (usually said with force for emphasis).

Pop.
Twitchel.
Croggy.
Bunking off
Tab'anging.
Nebbying,
Gizagoz
Ge roffnit tent yawn.

We have mithering as well.

Love these threads.

I'm Irish and constantly forget that no one on here will know what I mean by "bold", "give out" or "press".

@MrsRinaDecker Dingy can also mean ignore as in "I tried phoning him but he dingied me"

@MrsRinaDecker also which bridge? There's words at each bridge (forth & Tay) that don't travel throughout fife as I discovered when I moved from the forth bridge side to the Tay bridge side! Thankfully I've moved back again so can dispense with the cheuchter words from up north 😂

@ChakaKhanfan Noggin is very geordie!

@Folkishgal I only learned at 34 that a spelk is a colloquialism! I thought a spelk was small splinter 🤦🏻‍♀️

Not just Bristolian - we use Mint, and Cheers Drive in East Yorkshire too!

Same . My family (as in childhood)say it. I still day it
Think outside of family, I've only heard childhood friends say it

There have been many Irish words and phrases that I didn’t realise were specifically Irish until I moved to the UK e.g. ‘amn’t’ or ‘make a hames of’.

We also mither and have a maiden for drying clothes. And I'm also acquainted with 'piffy on a rock bun' 😄

Muffin for a bread roll or Oven Bottom (Muffin) I know is a pretty specific one to my area

Caused confusion once with pot towel (for drying your pots! Tea towel)

I'm from the Midlands but now live further south. I use mither, mardy, jitty, shrap, whittering, noggin. My mum calls DS his nibs, I love it it really suits him!

We have a 'shot on the chute', snecks, spelks, ginnels, yats, mither and moither, barms, stotties, cloot, clarts. And family from Scottish Borders, Fife, North Yorkshire , County Durham. It gets confusing......

😁 She was probably terrified you were asking her to do some sort of evening work

My London-raised niece and nephew find it very amusing that to their Scottish mother and aunt (me), every drink is a form of juice.

Diluting juice = squash / cordial
Fizzy juice = Coke, Fanta etc (even more confusingly for them, their Northern Irish cousins also refer to these as 'minerals')
Juice = fruit juice
Council juice = water (although that's a bit offensive these days, so we don't encourage it)

@JenniferWooley Tay bridge!
Juice caused confusion as well.. I grew up using juice to specifically mean pure juice like apple or orange.. but I’ve now moved over to the dark side with diluting juice (squash) and fizzy juice (pop).
I might also say shot on the chute (turn on the slide).
One I brought with me is that you pat a dog and an injection is a jab, my Scottish family would say clap and jag..

Mint and Cheers driver are a NZ thing too.
Kiwi translation for below:
Daps =plimsolls = Slip Ons
Slider= slide = Slide (or mini hamburgers if Slider)
Me babber= my baby = Baby (just baby, no The or My in front)
Stingers= nettle = We don’t have these :D

pitches= settle (as in snow) = Dump
Shrammed= cold = Chilly/cold as
Gurt=great = Awesome/Sweet
Mint=good, brilliant

Cheers Drive= a thank you to bus drivers
Scrage=graze (injuries) = Munted/Buggered

Also Buggered for tired and Decked It for fell over. Which gets a few side eyes in the UK :D

Chuck = throw

Looks like a Flea on a Tom tit = small hat on a large head

Pumps (cheap black PE shoes) and pump bags at school

Black over bill's mothers'

Divvy = dozy/idiot but I always wondered whether it was short for something...

Toe rag = nuisance person

Corporation pop = water

Shanksey's pony (spelling?) = walking

And my friend who doesn't have the accent but originates from NI always says 'whenever' in a way that makes absolutely no sense, for example, she'll say 'whenever I went to Greece on holiday' even if she's only ever been once!

I know all of those @Firecarrier although I believe divvy is considered somewhat derogatory and I wouldn't use it.

Upthread someone asked about the origin of "daps" . I've heard that it's short for Dunlop Athletic Plimsolls and the factory was based in Bristol.