Words and phrases that should be revived

[NotanNHSnurseanymore]

At the risk of sounding like this post was written by Enid Blyton or perhaps PG Wodehouse....

• Jolly decent
• You sir, are a cad and a bounder! (NB, you need steely eyes for this one)
• Rather, old thing!

Apropos of not very much, but usually when my colleague and I have agreed on a tricky situation, I like to refer to them as Comrade.

Daft apeth.

Is it visage? I have always thought it was a sort of shortening/corruption of physiognomy, although on reflection I have no basis for this. My dad used it though I think. (When he wasn't randomly sliding into polari, courtesy of Round the Horne).

Oh i don't know, i've always just assumed. :)

ETA, top marks to you! I just checked and that's what it is. (and that will teach me to assume!)

Fiddlesticks.

Look sharp/lively/slippy

If my adult DD and I are having a light hearted disagreement we often say in jest
Un-hand me you swine. Or
Step away you cad.

They were violas...faded to the point of colourless and brittle. The page beneath had the imprint where the moisture had seeped out. There were seed pods on one of the plants so I put them on wet kitchen paper for a day or so to rehydrate them a little and then sowed them.
Only a few germinated but they grew into beautiful violet and cream flowered plants. These in turn self seeded and I've had plants every year since.
My Dinah Leaves School violas

’you scallywag’

And I should jolly well hope so

May I be excused

Indubitably....

When my Grandad was surprised by something he'd say "Cor blimey Charley Pink, blow me up and apple tree....." then he'd proceed to tell the shocking tale. Made me snigger every time which wasn't always appropriate as sometimes his shocking news didn't always have a happy ending. I wish I'd asked him who Charley Pink was!! I think this should become a British classic!!

ow me up an

That should read blow me up an apple tree!!

Flummoxed...

Hullabaloo and kerfuffle.

My late dad (b 1928) used to describe a poor situation by saying it was like Fred Carno's Army - wiki was helpful to see it was real.

My adult son calls things "delightful" and uses "shenanigans" as a description.

I favour delicious and glorious myself.

She has 'taken to the bed'. To describe people who were sick or old (my granny's generation). People would take to the bed and it would be perfectly acceptable. It's just not acceptable to 'take to the bed' anymore. If I was sick and told my boss I have taken to the bed, he'd have me pulled out by my ear in no time 😅

Oh heavens to Murgatroyd, what a wonderous thread this is - the elegant and distinguished wordsmiths amongst you, breathing new life, Lazarus like, into a veritable cornucopia, panoply and gallimauphry of long deceased and hitherto forgotten phrases and words - the artisans and Titans of lexicography.

How unlike the ghastly, speech of today, peppered, as it is, with fillers - "like", "to be fair" and "see what I mean", which should be banished forevermore to hellfire and eternal damnation. We are, I fear, too far gone now, for the resurrection of thoroughly decent social oral intercourse, a task somewhat akin to that of Sisyphus

My nana, God rest her soul, used to call me Fanny Fernackerpan when I was being cheeky. Has anyone else ever heard of that before? I have no idea where it came from or if she just made it up.

Also, slightly more modern, but I have been campaigning for the resurrection of ‘chinny reckon’ for years.

:edited to change ‘bonfires’ to ‘no idea’. WTF.

Init! ~shudders~

I said 'what what!' today, so this is a very timely thread!

I also have a college who is very jolly hockey sticks and says things like 'load of old tosh' and 'super!' without a trace of irony, it's quite delightful!

Also joining the ranks of those with a granny that said doobrey firkin, flipperty gibbet (I use that one for DD), and doofer.

I also say fizzog and DB answers the phone with 'Ahoyhoy!'

Indeed! Also "them lot", "gifted", "orter" or, worse still, should that be humanly possible, "wa'er, bu'er, "be'er and any other word where the orator has forgotten that the letter 't' exists. My old, much beloved English master would be in a blue funk and spitting feathers were his scholars discoursing in such a heathen manner.

Granny also always said the time as 'five and twenty past/to' and always answered the phone with 'town 1234' - 1234 being the last 4 digits of her phone number, completely ignoring that they added two to the front in the 1990s!

Buffoon is my personal favourite !….Sadly I manage a few of them 😁

Sadly I also manage some lazybones 😬

Oh, God, yes, the glottal stop! ~shudders again!~