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 :(

I say 'oh my goodness' or 'gosh' a lot. It comes from training as a hairdresser back in the early 1990s and having a boss who drummed it into me that I shouldn't say things like 'Oh my God' etc.
I think it's nicer to say than some things that go through my head, so I stick with it.
Mind you, I'm also prone to using swear words, so I'm not perfect!

I use “I’m terribly cross” and “oh my goodness” quite a lot and I’m definitely not posh 😂

My daughter reckons I'm the only person outside a cartoon to say 'Yikes!' I tend to use it when a car overtakes dangerously or a pedestrian scoots across the road.

Then again, I also say, "Nyah...you realise dis means war?" and "You're dethpicabubble."

So she may have a point.

@Emmelina

I use “oh gosh”, or “oh my goodness” a lot. And usually it’s because I’m thinking “really?” and it goes right over their head.

Exactly this!

If I think the other person is actually having a tough time, I call the offending party a cunt.

"Oh my goodness" is code for "you were being a total twonk, but I'm not going to argue with you about it" (e.g. MIL expressing surprised consternation that the Italian waiters in Italy didn't speak English or serve lasagne).

I think I use "goodness" and "gosh" as exclamations of surprise. Not so much with the "oh my" though. And probably "gosh" more than "goodness" What do other people say?

I might also describe myself as being "quite cross" about something. I don't really do angry.

I use cross and gosh and of a bygone age, but then I learned English from my mum who left England in 1971.

All standard teacher phrases! Gosh/blimey/my goodness/very cross as opposed to shit/fuck/for fucks sake/you're pissing me off

I've done a name change for this because anyone who knows me will immediately recognise this!

My mum came to live in this country in the late 50s. Her English when I was growing up was excellent with a better vocabulary than most native speakers. However some of her expressions reflected the era when she was learning the language and weren't commonly used even in the 70s/80s.

My very favourite one was 'Stone the Crows'!! Not one you really hear ever, but I absolutely love it. Another was 'Honestly!'

Where I live now everyone uses terribly cross, oh my goodness and even my own dd uses oh my gosh.
Where I used to live everyone used to say I'm really fucked off/ fucking hell.
I think it must be a regional thing

This has reminded me that often at work I find myself "a bit peeved", which means "monumentally fucked off"

I say 'Heavens to Betsy', 'Good Golly Miss Molly' and sometimes 'I am outraged' at work when I'm taking the piss. If I'm really angry I become icily polite.
I do tell the dogs they are 'very cross making'.

I use 'I'm getting cross now' quite a bit with my toddler 😂 she's also picked up 'oh my goodness' from me which is adorable when she says it spontaneously. See also a pointy finger and 'That's exactly right!' 🥰

Unless we're talking regional dialects I have never lived anywhere where the people either all curse or else all trip along with whimsy!

I would imagine it is variable, and possibly connected to one's background/family too.

I wonder if most people would connect such statements with class? And whilst I'd admit that pronunciation does frequently correlate with social class, an aptitude for swearing seems to be quite random, and often beautifully surprising across the board!

Yup it's "oh my goodness "or "oh my gosh " here instead of OMG as dc i suppose really .
I beg your pardon is often pulled up to my dc when they reply with 'what'

I say “oh my goodness” quite a lot because I have a small child who I’d rather picked that up than “for fucks sake” or similar.

I'm terribly fucking cross right now as my bastard neighbours are cutting down a beautiful tree in their garden (which is always full of birds) to make way for a bloody double garage.
Yes it's their garden but why move to the country and then cut down the trees!
Terribly terribly cross!!

I use ‘Goodness me/My goodness’, ‘Good grief!’ and cross. But then I am a dear, sweet old-fashioned thing…

My whole family now says ‘oh my goodness’ because when my children started copying me and said ‘oh my god’ I realised how awful it sounds. The ‘oh my god’ TOWIE type crowd has totally ruined it in normal conversation but also I think it’s kind of weird. I’m not remotely religious but it does sound a bit…. Blasphemous?! I genuinely don’t know why I think that. But I don’t like it. So we have all stopped saying it and now say ‘oh my goodness’ instead.

I use them a lot. So do my teenagers. Though we are atheists, I do not allow my children to blaspheme, so they say that instead of OMG (because they don’t have a God).

I use gosh, goodness and crikey quite a lot.

And cross, poorly and my dad used wazzock!

I use 'oh my goodness' pretty often in real life........

I say oh my goodness, and I often use the word cross. But I rarely say terribly terribly, unless I am (rarely) describing someone very well to do. ("He was very terribly terribly").

I do like the phrase terribly terribly cross though!

I use "Oh my goodness" all the time as I absolutely hate "Oh my G...". Even tell the grandchildren that when they see 'OMG' written in a book, it means 'oh my goodness'. 😅🤣😅

In all seriousness, I don't like people saying OM God so I say goodness. I also use any other words that I like the sound of - like wazzock, dipstick, pillock, crikey, help ma boab, and have been recently using 'heavens to sockotash' from a mountain lion cartoon from the 70's! Heavens to socotash' is great rolling off the tongue.

You sound like you’ve lived a very sheltered life
In really life is used quiet COMMONLY and oh my goodness or goodness me is my fave instead of swearing at DC. FFS