You daft apeth

[Kasterborous]

No, not you but I heard this phrase yesterday and haven't heard it for ages. We used to say it when anyone had done something daft, but in a lighthearted way.

Another old favourite is 'crosspatch' as in 'don't be a crosspatch' when someone is being -well - cross.

That's awful about Sweet Fanny Adams. I never really thought about where all these phrases/sayings came from.

You look like the Wreck of the Hesperus

Her grave is quite near where I live. It was big news at the time apparently .

My eye and Betty Martin ...meaning a likely story. Or as my generation would say "Jimmy Reckon"

The Betty Martin bit is a corruption of theLatin for "bless me st Martin" though I dont know why.

Has anyone contributed "have your guts for garters" yet? Brilliant

Tiggy I use guts for garters a lot!

And heavens to mugatroyd

And ecky thump

And my favourite is " well I stood there like piffy" .... I think it means standing not knowing what is going on

I also like " pimple on a muffin"

And "eee well I'll go down to the bottom of our stairs"

I am a mancunian ( 9 generations) and proud as punch!

I love 'heavens to murgatroyd'

A few people have mentioned variations of 'eee well I'll go down the bottom of our stairs' I'd never heard that one before.

I love some of these - my dh is a yorkshireman, and Im a Pompey Skank, so we have need of translators at times...

Has anyone mentioned:

"Hells Bells and Buckets of Blood".

"Bloody Nora" is one of my aunts favourites - who was Nora? and equally, "Gordon Bennet" - who was he?

"I dont give a fishes tit" (the equivalent of a rats arse)

oh and "you look a Bobby Dazzler"

What about squinny Dwells? I'm from the Pompey area too and only ever heard it there, never in any other place I've lived.

To children who are asking for something because someone else has it, my grandma used to say 'Eee, if you saw the sea you'd want a wee.'

My mum said it to my DS the other day and it really tickled me.

Yes to squinny! My kids are always squinnying!

Her Grandma to Mum, then Mum to me - "You'd try the patience of Job and ten thousand Jobs". I never used to think I was that naughty
Was Job very patient?

Mum also, when I was being particularly (and evidently irritatingly) skittish - "Stop acting the giddy goat"!

We used to be threatened with being sent to 'the home with the jaggy trousers' if we were naughty (jaggy meaning itchy or prickly).

If someone was a bit gobby they were said to 'have a mouth like Gibb's Entry'. Gibb's Entry is a close (alley way) in the old town in Edinburgh.

Also 'cough it up, it'll do the cat' if someone had a particularly, er, productive cough... [boak]

Oh and 'scrubbing a hammock' as a response to the question 'what are you doing?' (normally used derisively when it was quite obvious what they were doing...).

At school, if people were asking nosy questions, the usual response was "Trunky want a bun?", while doing the elephant sign with your arm flapping in front of your nose!

flatiron we used to be 'giddy kippers'

"All my eye and Betty Martin" comes from "Ora mihi Beata Martin" - Pray for me Saint Martin. Patron of soldiers.

Heavens to Betsey ?...

"Well this won't knit the baby a new hat!" & "Where was I when the bed broke?" - things my Yorkshire Nan used to say.

And "She couldn't stop a pig in an entry!" about someone with bandy legs!!

Ooh yes an old colleague of mine used to say "well, this won't get the baby a new bonnet".

I still say it to indicate I need to get on with some chores/work etc instead of sitting about. Not that I ever do that

'sweating balls of whitewash'

Sod that for a game of soldiers.

If wit were shit you'd be constipated.

We also used to get the offer of a 'knuckle sandwich'