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

346 replies

CaramelJones · 12/10/2022 19:14

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.

OP posts:
TrashyPanda · 12/10/2022 21:31

Pan loafy - to act as if you are posh

Deflatedsponge · 12/10/2022 21:33

Donnies for hands

Ryder68 · 12/10/2022 21:34

BadGranny · 12/10/2022 21:29

Anyone come across ‘spice’ for sweets?

I've read it somewhere, but can't remember where it comes from?

SalviaOfficinalis · 12/10/2022 21:34

BadGranny · 12/10/2022 21:29

Anyone come across ‘spice’ for sweets?

No, but my BIL refers to sweets as “tuffees”. Any sweets, not just toffees.

buggeredmyleg · 12/10/2022 21:34

Have committed son of not reading thread but

Thaveless.

S/He was Standing there thaveless with both his arms the same length.

JenniferWooley · 12/10/2022 21:34

Whataplanker · 12/10/2022 21:30

Not quite the same but in my family we would say "I'm knackered" meaning very tired but people informed me once that it is rude!

We use that too - the rude thing is because the saying comes from horses going to the knackers yard

buggeredmyleg · 12/10/2022 21:34

*sin

ThanksAntsThants · 12/10/2022 21:34

BadGranny · 12/10/2022 21:29

Anyone come across ‘spice’ for sweets?

Sweets am ‘suck’ where arm from.

Cattenberg · 12/10/2022 21:37

”Sorry I’m a bit late. I bumped into the person from Porlock.”

Some people understand what I mean, others wonder WTF I’m on about.

SleepingStandingUp · 12/10/2022 21:38

Deflatedsponge · 12/10/2022 21:33

Donnies for hands

Black Country?

MrsMoastyToasty · 12/10/2022 21:38

Daps =plimsolls
Slider= slide
Me babber= my baby
Stingers= nettle
pitches= settle (as in snow)
Shrammed= cold
Gurt=great
Mint=good, brilliant
Cheers Drive= a thank you to bus drivers
Scrage=graze (injuries)

All Bristolian words

GrasssInPocket · 12/10/2022 21:38

Daft apeth, barn pot, mither, mardy, ginnel, barm cake, etc. - all completely alien terms to most southerners unless they happen to be regular watchers of Coronation Street! 😂

SleepingStandingUp · 12/10/2022 21:39

ThanksAntsThants · 12/10/2022 21:34

Sweets am ‘suck’ where arm from.

Flash back to my Grandad

LegsLikeParsnips · 12/10/2022 21:39

All the time. According to my friends it's because I make words up, I swear they're genuine then I google to prove it and can find no trace.

SpinForTheWin · 12/10/2022 21:41

Gambol for somersault! Hadn't heard it before I moved to midlands from south.

Lambs gambol, children somersault!

Thighdentitycrisis · 12/10/2022 21:42

My dad used to say Gamp! And I haven’t heard it for so long. he was from Lancashire

Hoss is used in Essex to mean go fast, as in “ he hossed it down the road”

DelphiniumBlue · 12/10/2022 21:43

CaramelJones · 12/10/2022 19:20

Nesh. My ex thought I was insulting him.

I just looked up nesh. It sounds like a bit of an insult but it isn't?

DH uses "nesh" as an insult, as in, "you softy southerner".

GabrielAgreste · 12/10/2022 21:43

Most of the key Birmingham ones have been mentioned already, but I don’t think anyone has said “gambol” yet? Which is a forward roll/ rolypoly. I honestly thought that was the proper recognised term until I was about 28!

ThanksAntsThants · 12/10/2022 21:44

SleepingStandingUp · 12/10/2022 21:39

Flash back to my Grandad

Goo an fetch ya some suck from over the paper shop.

SuffolkBargeWoman · 12/10/2022 21:44

@GrasssInPocket and others, surely It's not 'daft apeth' but 'daft ha'porth' as in half penny's worth??

GabrielAgreste · 12/10/2022 21:44

Ah snap! @SpinForTheWin 😆

ThisShitsBananas · 12/10/2022 21:45

Cornwall:

Yamming
Teasy
Squalling

ThisShitsBananas · 12/10/2022 21:46

Oh and dreckly obviously!

GrasssInPocket · 12/10/2022 21:46

Firecarrier · 12/10/2022 21:04

I thought it was a real word until I read your post! 😂

Ridiculously obstreperous? Or even obstreperously ridiculous? 😂

Curlyshabtree · 12/10/2022 21:46

I once used the phrase “he’s in and out like a dog at a fair” and nobody had a clue what I was on about!

I remember being confused about going for messages in Scotland. Also a piece of cheese is not a piece of cheese, it’s a cheese sandwich.
in Liverpool when someone said something was “on top” I thought it meant something really good but it means the complete opposite!
I love all these dialect idiosyncrasies.