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.

@mummabubs i searched in the page for ‘dinlo’ to see if anyone else had to got in there 😂 There’s not much unique about language in that area* but dinlo and squinny I think are specific to it (div is a bit more widespread).

• I’m from the other side of the harbour

What am I chopped liver...

I can only say this if affecting a proper Noo Yoik accent.

Have we had 'Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs' yet?

‘Bees’ knees and tin tacks’. Said by Mum as a generic answer to ‘What’s for tea?’
She came from the Welsh side of Oswestry. Also, according to Mum, we moithered rather than mithered.

Now I'm curious!

I've picked up twitten from my family who were in Sussex for generations. And I picked up owt and nowt from when I was in Yorkshire.

I don't often hear anyone else using both...

Narwhaleahoy, never heard that - love it. DMum's response (NE England) was 'Three trips round the kitchen table and a kick at the pantry door', while DMIL (Galway) was 'shit with sugar on' .

my mother's answer to 'what's for dinner?' was 'pigs arse and cabbage'

Katie-cornered anyone?

Also you'll know where I originate from if you use "fair", as in she's fair nice.

poorpaws - it's 'katty cornered' here. As in 'how do I fold the napkins?', 'katty-cornered'll do.'

My mother's answer to the "what's for tea" question was always "bread and pullit"!

@blacksax Divvy just means idiot. It’s not particularly offensive.

Have we had ‘worky ticket’? That’s my favourite and one of the few I haven’t retired despite nobody understanding it down here. It’s just too good.

The “what’s for tea” question here was always answered by my grandparents as “iffits” - if it’s there you can have some, if it’s not you can’t.

I think I might be from somewhere very near you…..

My mum (southeast England) would tell me to stop moidering rather than mithering, but I imagine the origin is the same..

Gesump

Going through to somewhere - eg instead of saying 'I'm going to glasgow' you'd say 'I'm going through to glasgow'

Gadgee - man
Screeving - what boy racers do
Clatch - mess
Lowie- money
Barree - good
Shan - bad
Muckle - big
Hot bag - hot water bottle
Baffies - slippers
Bunker - worktop
Bagie - swede
Foosty - food that's out of date or something that's gross
Coorie - cuddle

We have working your ticket - is it the same? Kind of means being naughty / annoying.

A very Yorkshire thing maybe, but we always used 'to side' as a verb meaning 'tidy away' when we were young. Mum would tell us to 'side the table' (clear the table after a meal) or 'side your things at the bottom of the stairs' (stuff that needed putting away in our bedrooms). Anyone else?

Also remember:
Parky - cold, chilly, nippy
Narky - moody, sullen
Snap tin - packed lunch box
Kalling - yapping, gossiping

Ive never heard the term nesh before, had to look it up!
Mithering is one I use a lot, also baltic for cold, and calling all fizzy drinks/diluting/waters 'juice', confuses the hell out of dh

midlander who was once asked in asda to tell someone where the diluting juice was. Thanks to mumsnet I was able to direct the asker to the squash aisle. Are there different labels in differeent regions?

Pop means fizzy or the stuff you dilute
Squash is the stuff you dilute.
Cordial is posh squash not to be wasted on kids.
Juice is the literal juice of a fruit or vegetable, fresh or from concentrate

Same but one’s the person and the other is the act!

My dad used this, both for the noise but also for heavy shoes (“clodhoppers”).

Noggin, chocker and “his nibs” pretty common, I’d say - is the latter from PG Wodehouse, maybe?

So many beautiful regional words on here…