To think people should use these words/phrases more often

[SybilRamkin]

Inspired by the 'hubster' thread, there are several words and phrases in our glorious language that have been much neglected of late, and I resolve to use them more often.

My current favourites:

"I don't like the cut of your jib"

"steal a march [on someone]"

"lollygagging"

What words and/or phrases do you think should be brought back into common parlance?

I thought it was only my Nan who said "weskit" for "waistcoat".

I try to use forego and forewent as much as possible as I fear they are dying out.

I say chinny reckon a lot (probably more than I realise).

Heaven to Betsy, crikey, blimey and cripes are all used frequently by me and my colleague. We also call each other old fruit (Jon, old fruit, would you like a drink?)

You can't have the bun and the ha'penny.

Also regularly use bobby dazzler and this isn't buying the baby a new bonnet.

I say "forrid" ; it's like scon, not scoan, one of the odd ways in which the U and the working classes meet.

I say forrid. It's the usual pronunciation in my part of the US.

'Blinky flip' (from Viz)
'You'd feel like a right Charlie'
'That ship has sailed'
'Blimey Charlie' (said in dreadful cockney accent by DS2)
'Whats for dinner?' 'Poison'
'Oh no, not another speedboat' (from Bullseye, used when something is utterly underwhelming)

I'm a big fan of "tatterdemalion", "shenanigans" and "kerfuffle" and a particularly Geordie word, "workyticket" (meaning a mischievous / annoying person or someone being deliberately awkward).

I have been known to exclaim "Heavens to Betsy!" and "Land o'Goshen!" when surprised, and - reverting to Geordie again - "haddaway and shite!" if something is beyond belief.

And a quote from Blackadder when life refuses to run smoothly: "the path od my life is strewn with cowpats from the devil's own Satanic herd!"

of my life...

Not my circus, not my monkeys.

Savvy?

Shits 'n' giggles.

Rocket.

Wizard.

Numbnut.

Sugar/fiddlesticks/for goodness sake - when small children around, which they have taken to copying. :0)

At work, a colleague, harrassed by loads of different people at once, said "you're not the closest crocodile to my canoe". Made me laugh a lot.

'Fuck a duck'

'Pig in a poke for nosey folk'

'He would steal the eyes out your head and come back for the lashes'

'She can't sing for toffee'

My gran would always say ' your arse in parsley' when someone said something she didn't believe. And would frequently (affectionately) call us 'glakit' or a 'stupid looking eejit' if we done something particularly daft. She also called people with lots of money 'Toffs' (not sure why but used in the same context snob is now)

DH sometimes says 'away and lie in your pish' when someone is clearly talking nonsense / lying.

I'm sure there are loads more but I can't remember them now - it's late and I can't sleep and I'm very tired. also my typo excuse/ disclaimer

The Geordie word Hinny has virtually disappeared. Pet hasn't but i cant remember hearing anyone other than my 90yr old grannie calling anyone Hinny

I'm always calling folks hinny, which may confirm my suspicions that I'm a 90 year old granny at heart...

To add to Tooterfaffer's 'what the Dickens' I also am a fan of 'what the blazes' !

My Irish mother had several I've not heard elsewhere - vis - if asked what was for dinner, would answer 'Pig's pugs and corned beef.' She referred to someone incontinent with diarrhoea as being 'covered in sweet violets.' Someone more canny than usual was said to be '- so sharp, you could set her to watch mice at a crossroads.' The male appendage was a 'tooly taily.' (Not a definition i've yet come across, even in a colloquial dictionary!)

I am working had to bring back "chaps" and "what ho" in the office environment. Too much PG Wodehouse as a girl.

I like 'to cut up rough' and 'as any fule kno' (just been reading Molesworth with my DD)

Bugger that for a game of soldiers

What's that then, scotch mist?

Yikes

My mum would describe a mongrel dog as three-parts Alsatian and one-part bicycle pump, a phrase I blithely repeated until I was about 11.

I've a particularly expressionless cousin who faintly utters 'crumbs' and 'golly' at shocking events. I've adopted those for when smallies tell tales on each other.

Headbanger seemed to go out in the 1990s and is worth resurrecting.

Gordon Bennett

Taking umbrage and being in high dudgeon.

rotters
thump

I love 'daft apeth' for a silly person. Especially when it is pronounced 'h'apeth' in an attempt to be posh.

We like 'veritable'

Also ' heavens to murgatroyd'