Expressions or phrases unique to your family

[Ginmonkeyagain]

Do you have any words or phrases unique to your family or relationship.

Tell me about them here, bonus points for a good origin story.

So I'll start off. We have lots but added a new one recently.

In New York earlier this year we went to a very nice but scarily trendy beer bar in the Lower East side. Getting peckish we talked about dinner and asked the bar man for recommendations. I had noticed there was a nice looking restaurant in the other part of the bar - "what about your restaurnt?" I asked pointing at the beatifully decorated but pretty empty dining room, "is that good?"

"Oh, he replied "I am not sure it is for you, it's very mushroom led". Looking at the menu, every dish was some sort of insane, multi cuisine, mushroom based small plate combo.

So now "it's very mushroom led" has come to mean anything stupidly trendy or hipster.

If I’m having a lazy day, staying late in PJ’s and just chilling out - then I’m “slummerking”

we have loads. "to do a tittle" is to gently potter about and tidy. After the Tale of Mrs Tittlemouse.

Downscalator

An escalator the goes down.

A cup of tea is a "ting"... due to the sound the spoon makes in the cup..

Another (and this is going back a few generations) - the term for when you are covered up on the sofa with a blanket.... it was called " squance"

When I was a child, my parents wouldn't let me use the words 'silly' or 'stupid' to talk about anyone, and they never said them to me either- I think they thought it was rude. So instead, if we thought someone was being silly, we would say 'you bunny!'

It came from the film of Watership Down, where the seagull shouts 'YOU STUPID BUNNY!' at one of the rabbits!

@garlicandsapphires love "tittling"!

If my mum was cross with any of us kids growing up, she’d shout: “There’ll be wigs in the green” if we didn’t stop messing about or whatever. So I say this all the time to my kids and they go

Apparently her old headmaster at school in Ireland said it to the naughty ones.

Snooging

It's the same as lolloping

Mooching around, usually laid, sometimes in bed, doing whatever TF you like - tablet time, reading, crocheting, cuddling, etc

Bamatoes - DS couldn't pronounce tomatoes until recently but we still call them bamatoes

When we clink drinks we say “Cheers on your bottom!” It comes from a young me confusing ‘cheers’ and ‘bottoms up’!

Oh god we've got loads mainly from one of us or the kids mispronouncing something or the kids when they were little making names up for things

I.e. any dried fruit is wheatens. DS1 when he was two announced he "don't like wheatens" and when we realised he meant raisins it stuck and became synonymous for all dried fruit.

Old family saying "Orf with their head..."

One doesn't actually do it now, although sometimes one wishes one could.

You know frozen fish pieces in breadcrumbs/batter? I called them (and still do) fish hands - like fish fingers but bigger.

My 25 year old DD recently discovered that this is not universal when her partners family had no idea what she was talking about.

Alice in Wonderland?

'I'm not tired!' is something we use as it's something dd used to shout at the top of her voice while having a bit of a tantrum in the evening and generally throwing herself around in a very annoyed way to demonstrate how 'not tired' she was. Used now when anyone is staying up late but clearly should be in bed. Probably not unique to our family now I think about it!

Little one couldn't say "recycling" but instead called it "cycling". Even now we put rubbish in the 'cycling' bin!

We often fly out on holiday from Gatport Airwick ( the trouble is that now I struggle to remember what it's actually called and several times I have asked for a train ticket there, or referred to it as that to other people..)🤦‍♀️

Two that my parents use:

"Union lights" = the sort of fairy lights that if one bulb has blown, the whole string doesn't work. They'd say "one out, the lot out".

"My aunt's a Roman Catholic too" = you've just said something totally irrelevant. It comes from my gran watching something on TV and she commented "and he was a Roman Catholic. Which is a pity because Mary's aunt is a Roman Catholic too."

Both food related-

We used to have a chalkboard in the kitchen to make a note of items to buy in the next shop. I wrote hummus? (with the question mark) as I wasn't sure if it was really required that week or not. 15 years ago, and we all still say hummus? like it's a question.

Also tartare sauce is 'party sauce' due to an mis-saying by my daughter when she was wee.

My mum used to say 'When it's gone it's gone'.

Very profound!

If anyone is feeling a bit discombobulated, we say they aren't very 'compost mental'.

Comes from my MIL trying, and failing, to say 'compos mentis'.

I'm watching the " Squiggles " in the garden.. or there is loads of Squiggles in that tree.
What we all call squirrels.. daughter used to call them that when a tot.

I think that's a standard expression. My parents used it, as did dh's, and I think I've seen it used in advertising too.

In our house, a fart is called a boff.
Dd started using the word when young and it has stuck!
'Have you boffed?' Is a regular in the car 😂

I never heard it anywhere else.