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 :(

Calling something 'fab' - reminds me of childhood, mostly used by children amongst peers.

Another possibly regional one - meithering/mithering (meaning stop mithering me/bothering me!). Heard this often in Cumbria.

And 'absolutely'. I once heard that it had come out top in a poll for most irritating spoken word in the UK. I say it quite often.

My English teacher used ‘Ye Gods and little fishes’ a lot. Also ‘Ye Gods, laddie’
She was terrifying.

Golly gosh

Another possibly regional one - meithering/mithering (meaning stop mithering me/bothering me!). Heard this often in Cumbria.
Interesting!
I thought it was more of a Midlands/South Yorkshire sort of word.

I like absolutely and absofuckinglutely if you can deliver it well!

Blimey, Crikey, Gosh and Heck used frequently here. I swear like a trooper in the car so feel I have to calm it down in the house. But terribly terribly cross, no, as by the time 'I'm really fcking pssed off' is past the point of speaking proper like.

I like 'Hell's bells and buckets of blood'. Don't hear that much any more.

I say 'Ecky Thump! ' and 'Did I 'eck as like . .
. ' all the time. Mostly to annoy my children.

Another one here who uses ‘oh my goodness’ fairly often because I work with children.

I say goodness! A lot 🤣

And am often Very Cross.

It’s funny, as I’m extremely foul mouthed

I don’t think I say cross.. but I use oh my goodness / oh my gosh fairly frequently - although I wouldn’t go so far as golly - as I try to avoid swearing and blasphemy. In fact, I’d have to be terribly, terribly cross to slip up and use a swearier version

I’m a primary school teacher, I use phrases like “I’m really very upset by your behaviour, this is not ok”. Mainly this is to prevent myself saying “will you stop doing my fucking head in?”

I've worked in schools as well.

Oh, my goodness, let's go and see Mrs J in Medical = fuck, fuck, FUCK, nobody's finger should be pointing in that direction/that is a LOT of blood coming from their nose.

Oh, crumbs, thank you for reminding me = fuck, fuck, FUCK, I'm in the shit if I don't get that sorted RIGHT NOW.

Oh, botheration = BALLS, BALLS, FUCKING HAIRY BOLLOCKING BALLS

Really? = What the FUCK did you just say to me?

Righty-ho = Why the FUCK do I do this job?

Well, really [sigh] = who the actual FUCK do you think you are talking to?

Oh, fiddlesticks [turns around and goes back down three flights of stairs, crosses entire site in the pissing rain, takes evasive manoeuvres through entire complement of KS4 dawdling between lessons with a skill comparable to a ninja whilst secretly habouring a wish to possess rollerskates, a sharpened hockey stick and a starring role in a real life remake of Rollerball] = FUCK'S SAKE

Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I didn't quite catch that? = are you feeling lucky, punk?

Well, quite. However, shall we pop along to Inclusion/the Deputy Head and have a little chat there? = I'd like to tell you to get the fuck out but, sadly, I'm not allowed to. So I'm taking you where you can be an aggressive little shit to somebody else and hopefully not have to deal with you again for a couple of days.

Mrs Bloggs? Ugh, appalling woman, simply ghastly and her husband is a beastly individual = Fucking Nazi bitch, if I ever have to endure a call from her about how we are demeaning the civilising influence of the Empire and promoting violent gang she means black culture at the expense of the silent majority again, I swear I'll do her and her fucking Hitler Youth husband a serious fucking mischief with a broken fucking lacrosse stick next Sports Day.

Well, it is rather irksome = I am currently resisting the urge to rip off his head and scream FUCK OFF down the gaping hole for this most recent example of pedantry. But I rather like eating and prefer not sleeping on the street, so I will go back into the 4000 row and 87 column spreadsheet/database and retype everything in B, F, N and AA as a text field rather than a value because he prefers to see the time and date separated by full stops and NOT THE WAY IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE SO THAT YOU CAN FILTER AND SORT THE FUCKING THING AND YOU WILL BE COMPLAINING THAT YOU CAN'T DO BY FRIDAY AFTERNOON YOU FUCKWITTED MORON.

I found it [a meeting/encounter/conversation] all a little - uh - disquieting. = FUCK ME, that guy's creepy as fuck, all my fucking spidey senses were screaming at me the run the FUCK away and if my skin could crawl anymore than it did, I think it would have crawled off me and hidden under the table by itself when he fucking smiled bared his teeth at me.

Born diplomat, me.

'Cross' is a word I only tend to use around my kid. But it does remind me how much I like the word 'crosspatch'. Haven't heard it in aeons and it describes my ornery old mare to a tee!

I hastily changed 'knackers!' to 'knickers' when I remembered DC was in earshot. It sounded so quaint and funny, I made myself laugh.

'Horrid' can be a good one in context, but even though it's almost always an overstatement I have a particular love of the word 'hideous'.

The phrase 'did you mean to be so rude?' is one I'd never, ever use. It's not quite the stinging riposte MN seems to think it is. Likewise the head tilt and the tinkling laugh - usually used in situations where a well-placed 'go fuck yourself' would be far more effective.

However, 'Narked' is a beaut!

My favourite insults are “melt”, “tube” and “unit”. I hope they don’t have hideously offensive origins.

I use oh my gosh/oh my goodness. I'm really trying to swap to them from oh for fucksake... as DD has grown older I've become a bit more comfortable swearing around her, as I know she hears that and worse out of the house, but I've got a new baby on the way, and don't want him echoing me (just how I felt with DD before her teen years) I think its better to sound like I've escaped a book than it being one of the kids first phrases.

@MonStylo

I never hear anyone use the word “poorly” in real life but see it used here all the time. Maybe used more in some UK regions than others?

I'd never heard it until I moved to the Midlands 30 years ago and struggled to use it for many years. It's now in common usage especially when talking to/about children.

I probably use oh my goodness several times a day, even in comments on MN! That said I don't swear or say oh my god so that's about as strong as it gets for me!!

@NeverDropYourMooncup

I've worked in schools as well.

Oh, my goodness, let's go and see Mrs J in Medical = fuck, fuck, FUCK, nobody's finger should be pointing in that direction/that is a LOT of blood coming from their nose.

Oh, crumbs, thank you for reminding me = fuck, fuck, FUCK, I'm in the shit if I don't get that sorted RIGHT NOW.

Oh, botheration = BALLS, BALLS, FUCKING HAIRY BOLLOCKING BALLS

Really? = What the FUCK did you just say to me?

Righty-ho = Why the FUCK do I do this job?

Well, really [sigh] = who the actual FUCK do you think you are talking to?

Oh, fiddlesticks [turns around and goes back down three flights of stairs, crosses entire site in the pissing rain, takes evasive manoeuvres through entire complement of KS4 dawdling between lessons with a skill comparable to a ninja whilst secretly habouring a wish to possess rollerskates, a sharpened hockey stick and a starring role in a real life remake of Rollerball] = FUCK'S SAKE

Oh, I'm terribly sorry, I didn't quite catch that? = are you feeling lucky, punk?

Well, quite. However, shall we pop along to Inclusion/the Deputy Head and have a little chat there? = I'd like to tell you to get the fuck out but, sadly, I'm not allowed to. So I'm taking you where you can be an aggressive little shit to somebody else and hopefully not have to deal with you again for a couple of days.

Mrs Bloggs? Ugh, appalling woman, simply ghastly and her husband is a beastly individual = Fucking Nazi bitch, if I ever have to endure a call from her about how we are demeaning the civilising influence of the Empire and promoting violent gang she means black culture at the expense of the silent majority again, I swear I'll do her and her fucking Hitler Youth husband a serious fucking mischief with a broken fucking lacrosse stick next Sports Day.

Well, it is rather irksome = I am currently resisting the urge to rip off his head and scream FUCK OFF down the gaping hole for this most recent example of pedantry. But I rather like eating and prefer not sleeping on the street, so I will go back into the 4000 row and 87 column spreadsheet/database and retype everything in B, F, N and AA as a text field rather than a value because he prefers to see the time and date separated by full stops and NOT THE WAY IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE SO THAT YOU CAN FILTER AND SORT THE FUCKING THING AND YOU WILL BE COMPLAINING THAT YOU CAN'T DO BY FRIDAY AFTERNOON YOU FUCKWITTED MORON.

I found it [a meeting/encounter/conversation] all a little - uh - disquieting. = FUCK ME, that guy's creepy as fuck, all my fucking spidey senses were screaming at me the run the FUCK away and if my skin could crawl anymore than it did, I think it would have crawled off me and hidden under the table by itself when he fucking smiled bared his teeth at me.

Born diplomat, me.

This is a thing of beauty. I would love to put a book together on the subject!

@DrEmilleShofhousen

I say "quick sticks" probably daily to my kids. I hate myself for it.

Hahaha, I say this a lot! Originally tongue in cheek after picking it up from this beautiful sketch:

But it's just merged into being part of my everyday language now. Oops!

Anyone heard 'wazzock'?

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

Blimey
Crikey
Flip!
Oh my goodness.

All used by my 8 year old with absolute abandon. He's going to have a filthy mouth when he learns the real swears.

I like cross - it's serious enough without being raging.

Very sweary over here...
I did try to stop and start using ‘oh my goodness’ etc and DH tried to start saying ‘fudge’ after DS started repeating the other f word.
But I’m afraid me, DH, our families, we are all utterly foul mouthed.
The kids know they aren’t allowed to use the ‘grown up words’
My dad always used to say ‘oh bollocks’ and I find myself now doing the same —alongside other profanities—

Personally I just say I’m pissed off, I’ve heard people in passing use terribly cross though.

@dementedma

I like the occasional "blimey"

I use blimey too!

That and “heavens to Betsy” are my favourite at the moment!

@DrMadelineMaxwell

That and Hell's Teeth!

I wish more parents refrained from swearing around their children. It's disappointing how many primary (and sometimes very young primary) children don't know that knackered/bloody/oh my god/Jesus Christ and the like aren't acceptable in school.

Never mind the few that come out with Fuck off! at the drop of a hat.

Surely "knackered" means ready for the knackers yard, ie worn out? Do children get in trouble for saying this word in school 😮?