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.

Fair enough. I had the opposite. I thought "Union Lights" was a general term until I used it in front of a relative who was a very active member of a union. 🤣

It was Morrisons that used it in advertising though. Knew I'd seen it somewhere fairly recently.

Morrisons rolls out ‘when it’s gone it’s gone’ offer to nearly all supermarkets | News | The Grocer

When it's gone, it's gone is very widely used expression for deals or shops that she closing down.

We say 'your plane' when we are handing over a task, the other person has to say 'my plane' so that there is do doubt who is now in charge of the task. Works a treat.

If you do something useful... "you are a useful engine". From Thomas the Tank Engine... but our DDs are at Secondary school now. We haven't watched it in years!

We call lint rollers ‘deflossinators’ . The term comes from the name of our cat as they are mostly used to remove the fur. There is also the adjective “flossinated” - covered in the cat’s fur.

We say squirls!

"You're spoiling my quiet time!" At weekends or during school holidays, everybody was entitled to quiet time in the afternoon, especially the adults.

@Froniga My grandmother used to "drag in her dressing gown". She was French, and it's the same word for "drag" and "hang around".

@Hillrunning "Your plane" reminds me of something my brother used to say, aged 6 or 7: "It's my population", when referring to a toy or something that was his. He didn't know what it meant, but it was a nice grand word to say. He also once said "That's the opule of the game!" instead of object of the game.

"Your toes will fall off." This was said to me if I wore trainers without socks, which I often did because I liked the feel. I would wiggle my toes in my trainers to check they were still there.

Also "You'll get your feet burnt off, like Pinocchio", if I put them on a radiator, or other warm place.

Exact same expression used in my family, growing up. Don't know who started it but I think it's a phrase used by a few people.

When DD was little, she mixed up hug and cuddle to form huggle. We still call them huggles now

‘I haven’t got any beans!’ And ‘I haven’t got any horses!’

both uttered indignantly by then 3yo DD when asked to hold her horses or chill her beans - I.e to hold on a minute

We say "she's got a touch of the Edna Wilsons" (not real name) to mean someone who is very earnest and puts a bit of a dampener on all your stories.

Edna was an elderly neighbour my parents and my siblings and I as teens used to drop in on to give her some company and she had a real knack for whatever story you told her, however mundane, she always knew someone that had died doing it or been seriously injured or lost a lot of money etc.

My sister used the phrase to describe someone else she'd met a few years ago and it stuck!

Sweets are speets as that's how ds pronounced them as a toddler.
If my dog goes out to do her business I always say she's doing poo poos in the snow!
She had a shit when it was snowing once and for some reason it's stuck

My mother once nearly swore in front of us kids " oh for F * lemon jelly" in a very annoyed tone. Yes. We all adopted that one to take the p out of her. It's quite satisfying, and I still say it 50 years later.

''...... And her blood had turned to milk!!'' <wide eyes dramatic emphasis on the last bit>

We jump in with this (if it fits at all) as a punch line if one of us is telling an anecdote from our day.

It comes from my elderly grandmother (who would have been over 100 if still alive love her) regaling us with a story from her lunch club. Dotty was not there that day. Gran had asked if anyone knew why. Freda said Dotty was at home because she'd gone to the docs feeling unwell, was given a blood test and .... yes you guessed it ..... all her blood had turned to milk! <big gasp>

They loved a good gossip at the lunch club😂

@Laiste if there are very high fat levels in the blood it can look rather like milk -or at least the plasma bit can. Lipaemia

I love both of these! Must try and introduce them into my family lexicon 🤔

We always called Elizabeth II 'The Quoon'. We now call Camilla 'The Noo Quoon'.

It originated from a Two Ronnies' sketch and stuck with us.

You must keep your ears closed 🤣

Marr teeeeeeeeeea?! In a kind of old woman / verging on Irish voice when anyone wants or makes tea

Harks back to when dh was a kid and he and his dad would visit and old lady to do jobs for her on her farm. She would offer more tea, but he didn't have a choice - you were getting tea whether you wanted or not!

We also add 'ward' onto the end of everyone's name. So if your name is John, you'd be johnward in our house.

That reminds me of another gem in my family:
Mum: You should drink lots of water to flush out your system.
Me: I haven't got a cistern.

When any of us nods off on the sofa we call it ‘resting my eyes’
”I wasn’t sleeping I was just resting my eyes!”

I came from a working class background where our main area where we watched tv etc was called the Living Room, my DH a bit posher than me always referred to it as the Lounge. Our DD aged 4 always called the area the "Living Lounge".

We say squeezers!

We always tell the dc off if they swear so my 10 year old started saying "son of a dingleberry" a couple of years ago.

My sufficiency is suffonsified- meaning I'm full up

He's fu the nu - meaning being silly

A silly billy goat

In our house a snoleygoster is someone who puts stuff back in the fridge that's very nearly empty. Not leaving enough orange juice/milk/yogurt/butter to be of any possible use but passing on the task of getting rid of the packaging to someone else. With a house full of teens we see a fair bit of snoleygoster action in our house.