To be so terribly, terribly cross?

[musicforsmorks]

In reality, I am asking is it being remotely unreasonable to suspect that hardly anyone uses this phrase in 'real life'?
It's all very well when one is perusing their Enid Blyton collection but I have honestly rarely come across it as a common element of social/familial dialogue (and I've been around a bit ).

Another one is 'Oh my goodness!', which, whilst having stood the test of time (unlike the poor, neglected cross), still doesn't crop up with regularity in my social circles or professional life very often.

Also interested in hearing other people's thoughts on certain phrases, and whether they are particular to MN, the written word, or just off with the fairies or whatnot.

My favourite MN regular is the did you mean to be so ruuuude?
Although, whilst frequently tempted, I have not yet had the pleasure of uttering it with any true gravitas in real life :(

@musicforsmorks

Anyone heard 'wazzock'?

An old one, can't recall who uttered it!

It’s actually not that old! It’s a sort of portmanteau of pillock, tosser and wanker. I first heard it from my Chemistry teacher to an annoying teenager: Travis, you are such a wassock!

Fun fact I used to work with Enid blytons niece!!!

I think Mike Harding likes the word wassock.

I've lived in the UK for a quarter of a century and only heard 'Bloody Nora' for the first time about two years ago.

I say "Heavens to Betsy on toast!" which disturbs my kids. I had a summer job at the age of 15 as a sort of sub-par, junior file clerk for our neighbour who would routinely blurt this out.

Fab is awful! I will hate myself if I ever say it.

You should be frightfully cross, not terribly terribly cross.

Toodle pip.
Talking about people's behaviour at work (HR Director) In do sometimes say, I heard from Head of x service that x had happened. It's the sort of behaviour that makes me very cross.

One of my favourite ever lessons at school was when we learnt about plosives and why the 'pop' of air that certain words (I think that end in certain letters, not sure which?) that you release when you say them is actually very satisfying.

Fuck is very much a plosive, as is shit, crap, twat etc. Golly is not a plosive, neither is goodness. No matter how venomously you spit the word out it won't make you feel the same as a good air-poppy swear lol.

Crikey is good. I like crikey.

'Knackered' actually means 'emasculated': it's come to mean 'tired' but is actually closer to 'worn out' in the sense of being 'at the end of its useful life'.

That said, only a complete lunatic would censure a child for using it.

I do the full range from "Oh my goodness" to "Fiddlesticks!". My dd's friend once said I talk like a Victorian novel and she loved it.
In the right circumstances I also use the full range of swear words :)

I regularly get the piss taken out of me for saying "Golly", not in a "Oh Golly gosh, how exciting" jolly hockey sticks kind of way, but when something bad happens. I drop a spoon I am stirring the stew with? "For fucks sake". Drop my favourite mug, which breaks and shards splinter in all directons? "Oh Golly"

Fuck alone knows where that came from, it wasnt a phrase I used as a kid. I can only think that because I am a sweary mary by nature that Golly has far more impact by virttue of the fact that is about as far from swearing as you can get!

I say gosh and oh my goodness pretty much daily, I've never got the impression that it's strange, I also use plenty of swear words and the occasional 'crivens'

I sometimes go for "jolly cross" which seems to amuse my teenage DD.

My grandmother used the exclamation "Christopher Columbus!" (Said in voice of shocked indignation). Given that the emphasis was always on the 'Chris' bit of Christopher, I assume it was a phrase she used to stop herself saying Christ!

I don't swear, never really have, so often say things like oh gosh, goodness me, whopsie and oops. An insult from me (eg someone cutting in front of me on a roundabout) would be calling someone an idiot or, at a push, a blooming idiot. I don't have kids.

When I used to be a ward nurse, we'd often say we'd got a poorly patient if someone was very sick, other patients, even people the rest of the population would describe as ill or very unwell (patients who'd recently had heart attacks, strokes or who had kidneys which weren't working properly for example, even if they needed frequent observations, lots of IV medications or even non-invasive ventilation) weren't described as poorly unless we had concerns about them.

Is referring to being angry as 'terribly cross' something to do with societal expectations about the expression of anger in women? If you say 'I was extremely angry' does it somehow come across as less feminine? Screw that, if you're angry, you're angry!

I use lots of words depending on the place and who's around but general favourites are 'oh my word' or 'oh my goodness'. From a lifetime of working with small children.

My teens and their friends say 'oh my days' (obviously not when no one can hear them)

@DrMadelineMaxwell

DDad's phrase was Sand and blast it!

Not heard this but definitely use damn and blast it! Also Good grief; Oh my giddy aunt; and sugar! Have also told people to take a long walk off a short pier or go shuffle off your mortal coil!

I'm a regular "crikey!"-er! Sorry!

Another thing working with small kids - 'I'm feeling a bit sad'

I did say to a ticket officer at the train station...Do you have to be quite so rude? He made out he could not understand me. My friend burst out laughing. Mr ticket me then helped me. Never said it before or since

My DP's favourite insult when truly cross (not sure if he invented this one or not) is:

'Go and take a running fuck at a rolling donut'.

I use both. I'm a huge introvert and much of my vocabulary comes from books written before 1960.

I remember being surprised at hearing "blert" so muchon Brookside.

I grew up near Liverpool and it just means that someone is an irritant. However, at school I was told it was another word for jizz/sperm and was always shocked when someone called someone a "Bad blert" on Brookie"!

@musicforsmorks

My DP's favourite insult when truly cross (not sure if he invented this one or not) is:

'Go and take a running fuck at a rolling donut'.

I love that!!

I regularly use 'Fuck him and the horse he rode in on'... mid divorce so using this one a lot. I don't know where it comes from.

My youngest DC likes to say, "Oh my stars!" lately, which is very Bugs Bunny of him.