Words/phrases you have seen in books that you have never heard a real life person say

[OneUmberJoker]

Little high little low - stuart little

My Dad says fizzog and fizzer for face.

Gruntled (from the wonderful Bertie Wooster books)

There’s not many a day that passes, when my OH doesn’t say that to me, and to some extent I say it to him.
This has happened from almost day one of our twenty four year relationship.
In our case l, it’s not gooey talk, it’s usually genuine amazement that say something happened in our past childhoods that were strikingly alike.
Or maybe a confession of as feeling or an emotion, that the other of us has also experienced.
Genuinely, it’s so strong, it can feel like we are blood related.

When I was (probably a moody teen) a lot younger, and I wasn’t happy about something, Mum used to look straight at me in (pretended) amazement, and say “good grief, what on earth is wrong with your fizzog”.
Ot either made me more “humpy” or it’d break the ice, and we’ed both end up in fits of laughter 😂 🤣

I thought it was ‘do not let us’

In that situation my parents would have said, "Ye've got a face like a torn-oot fireplace." An expression I don't think I've ever seen in a book.

I do hear fizzog in real life but though I've met Marian Keyes and read most of her books I don't recall ever reading it. In any book.

As in my uncle "What's he done to his fizzog? (About Michael Jackson)

there’s cold pheasant in the pantry…

Gosh this z so true! I hadn’t thought about the difference in years, you’ve brought me back to my childhood days.

Dancing in the disco
Bumper to bumper
Wait a minute -
Where's me jumper?

(the Sultans of Ping)

Is it a bit ‘east end in the 90s’?

I remember her books having quite a distinct dialect where characters would always say ‘I am’ and ‘you are’ vs I’m and you’re - like ‘you are making a right mug out of me’ 😆

Ahem it’s an Irish expression, not strictly confined to Dublin. We’ve been using it with carefree abandon in the west of Ireland since time began.

Lashings of ginger beer.
Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

See, I once had a drunken conversation with Morty about what the jumper looked like. No idea what he said, but I was very insistent that it was an army surplus one.

Oops…though I did say it was common in other parts of Ireland too in the very next post 😅

It’s not really used where I live in Ireland (although understood of course), so I don’t think it’s ubiquitous here.

Some of these, like erstwhile and shall and don't let's and you oughtn't to seem quite normal to me.

I suspect there are elements of regional use, and also speech patterns changing overy time.

I grew up on a farm, and we definitely sometimes said there's cold pheasant in the larder or fridge, though not the pantry.

I don't know how to say anything "with a shudder"

In fact it's quite hard to shudder and speak at the same time: try it!

I always uaed to say jersey born in the mid 70s everyone I knew did.

I've been told to my face I am 'incorrigible' .

Not so much a word as an action, where a character, invariably a man, usually a detective runs their fingers through their hair in bafflement, frustration, etc.

Watch some early Gordon Ramsey 'Kitchen Nightmares'.

It's an Irish expression

We say that in a nessibg around sort of way quite regularly, like pretending we're insulted.

Glowering. Also very few people actually seem to chew their lip when they’re thinking.

“Off with her head!” In fact lots of things in Alice in Wonderland 🤣

I think those are the same meaning, in practice? I.e. don't let's worry about it now = let's not worry about it now = do not let us worry about it now

I think it's short for 'physiognomy' which is a way of saying Facial Features