Phrases you don’t hear much any more

[BarbaraVineFan]

I was just thinking about the phrase ‘I speak as I find’, which my gran always used to use to mean that she was always honest (sometimes blunt!) and realised that it has been years since I heard it! Any other phrases like this that used to be really common, but now are a dying breed?

Fhb -at my grannies, if unexpected guest appeared at meals, fhb family hold back
A fart in a trance
Don't trust anything if you can't see where it keeps it's brain
Don't think I'm a slut- my granny, recently when she hadn't tided up, she thinks that's being a slut

I don't think it will ever be OK, because whether it's true or not, it seems to me that a lot of people believe it to go back to an act of violence.

I wonder how many people actually do think that though. I'd never heard it.

No idea, but like a lot of things sometimes it's best to err on the side of caution (another phrase).

Yes, many of those already mentioned remain in current use in our household. I’ve used ‘swizz’ quite recently, actually, but it made me realise that it’s not often heard now.

A speciality of DH’s is the reply to ‘what’s for dinner?’ as ‘stewed bugs and onions’, sometimes altered in a cod French accent (à la the English policeman in ’Allo ’Allo) to ‘bergs stewés avec oignons’.

DH is quite fond of being inventive with these traditional sayings, eg ‘wreck of the Hesperus’ - if I’ve got something not quite tucked in properly, or something like that, he might set it straight with a smile and ‘Hesperus, wreck thereof.’

It makes more sense to imply a measurement of some kind.

Tart- no one calls anyone a tart anymore
snog/snogging- people just saying kissing
cat got your tongue

‘I’ll have your guts for garters!’ And ‘a few Dolly mixtures short of a quarter’

I remember ‘what a swizz’ 😄 I know someone who still says that.

Another one. You look like death warmed over.

Guts for garters. Love it!

You look like one of Lewis' if you're from Liverpool you'll know!

Stands the test of time, probably because very little does nowadays

I don't doubt it, but ever since I found out it has "connotations", shall we say, whether real or not, I have avoided saying it.

Get away to Hell’s gates (one of my dad’s favourites)

I’ve noticed a couple of people mention shit with sugar. We said sugar ‘n’ shite. And in a similar vein, ‘stewed bugs and onions’. Usually referring to school dinners😆

l’ll shoot the boots off ye!

A specifically NI one everybody used to say was ‘Boys a dear’ if they were surprised about something. Don’t hear it so much these days.

The camera never lies.

My dad was the king of phrases, making up words and nicknames.
Gertcha is short for I'm going to get you (jokey) and is always used when playing with a baby. Away with your bother
I think slut actually meant messy, un clean person originally as my my mum used it recently meaning that.

I was often threatened with being sent to Barnardos when I was being naughty as a small child. Since I knew they had a home at a nearby beach resort, I was quite happy at this prospect so it wasn’t quite the threat it was intended to be 😀

My dad while watching the news would mutter “Dumber than a box of hair” at some politicians

Do people still say 'the proof is in the pudding'?

Ds: I think I did well in my exams. Me: The proof is in the pudding.

A blind man on a galloping horse would never notice- said to comfort somebody fretting over mark on their clothes or similar.

An eye like a travelling rat- used to describe somebody hyper observant, nosey and probably judgemental

Pass remarkable- adjective to describe unpleasant trait common to people like the above; snide, judgy or shit stirry

Not the full shilling- same as a few sandwiches short of a picnic

Not at the races- when you're tired or preoccupied and can't concentrate on work

Yeah, that hasn't aged well. With AI deep fakes and filters, the camera does lie.

I haven't heard "cheap at half the price" for a very long time, which I'm delighted about as it made no effing sense whatsoever...I mean, half the price is cheap.

I'm given to understand it's one of those sayings that got lost in translation, with incorrect words used, or part of the phrase missing, and should have either been "cheap at twice the price" (as in, "even if it was twice as much it would still be cheap), or else "cheap (comma), at half the price of anywhere where else" (as in, it all other retailers were charging much more).

Another one where half of the phrase got chopped off is "As near as damn-it". For years I had no idea what it meant in a literal sense, though I knew it meant something was very like something else, if not quite fully so.

The actual expression as I later found out is "as near as damn-it is to swearing". That, I understand.

Till the cows come home

"A specifically NI one everybody used to say was ‘Boys a dear’ if they were surprised about something. Don’t hear it so much these days."

My family would use that but more in a sorrowful tone...like my old Welsh boss said Duw, duw.