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22-10-2007, 02:50 PM
|  | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Sheffield, FPRSY
Posts: 5,084
| | | Re: Idioms and Phrases
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul mabbott  There's always someone who knows the answer. Gordon Bennet ..................... | There's a coincidence; I read the Daily Telegraph (do it every week or two just to see how the other half lives) and there's a reader's letter suggesting that this was taken up by cockneys as a polite form of gor blimey?
For years I tried to work it out as rhyming slang ...... which is another interesting topic ...  |
22-10-2007, 04:56 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Belvedere, Kent
Posts: 2,034
| | | Re: Idioms and Phrases
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul mabbott rhyming slang ...... which is another interesting topic ... | Indeed it is! I wonder how many people know what they're really saying when they call someone a 'berk'! 
Dave P.
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"Everywhere I turn, all the beauty just keeps shaking me." - Amy Ray |
22-10-2007, 05:04 PM
|  | Wild Member | | Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: North west
Posts: 128
| | | Re: Idioms and Phrases
Quote:
Originally Posted by jdurbo Megs...when they pass the ball through the other players legs 
I have no idea why they say it though!
jen xxx | Quote: |
Originally Posted by wikipedia A nutmeg (or tunnel or panna) is a technique used in football (soccer), in which a player plays the ball through an opponent's legs. This can be whilst passing to another player, shooting or occasionally to carry on and retrieve it himself.
The origins of the word are a point of debate. According to Alex Leith's book Over the Moon, Brian - The Language of Football, "nuts refers to the testicles of the player through whose legs the ball has been passed and nutmeg is just a development from this". The use of the word nutmeg to mean leg in Cockney rhyming slang has also been put forward as an explanation. The most likely source, however, was postulated by Peter Seddon in his book "Football Talk - The Language And Folklore Of The World's Greatest Game". He states that 'to nutmeg' was a Victorian verb meaning 'to trick' or 'to fool' and arose after the nutmeg trade gained a reputation for duplicitous goings-on, with vendors selling fake nutmeg. It soon caught on in football, implying that the player whose legs the ball had been played through had been tricked, or, nutmegged.
To be nutmegged is commonly seen as showing the opponent is lacking in footballing skill, and therefore amongst amateur players (particularly children) nutmegs are frequently tried so as to embarrass the opposition player and prove your own skill. The player that performs the nutmeg would sometimes say "Olé!" In northern England the term nutmeg is often shortened to "megs" in informal use. For example, if one player nutmegs another, as he runs past to retrieve the ball, he may call "megs!". However in other parts of the country, players have been known to call "nuts!". In the United States "meg" is frequently used as a verb. | You (& me!) learn something new everyday...  |
22-10-2007, 05:49 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Derbyshire
Posts: 1,732
| | | Re: Idioms and Phrases
Now i see thank you Rainmaker!!
jen xxx |
22-10-2007, 07:03 PM
| | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Sheffield, FPRSY
Posts: 5,084
| | | Re: Idioms and Phrases
Quite so, I explained this to my wife many years ago and she has not used the term since. Takes a vehement attitude to anyone who uses it but doesn't explain why ...  Quote:
Originally Posted by pressld2 Indeed it is! I wonder how many people know what they're really saying when they call someone a 'berk'!
Dave P. | |
22-10-2007, 07:10 PM
| | Knight Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Sheffield, FPRSY
Posts: 5,084
| | | Re: Idioms and Phrases
Stone the crows and corblimey - that explains a lot! I do find rhyming slang very interesting and have been known to make up my own. It's a strange thing that it is a (sort of) language which is meant to be not understood by most listeners .... Quote:
Originally Posted by rainmaker You (& me!) learn something new everyday... | |
24-10-2007, 10:34 PM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Derbyshire
Posts: 1,732
| | | Re: Idioms and Phrases
Could see that coming a mile away!!!!
Sorry to say i do say this one
jen xxx |
26-10-2007, 10:07 PM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Dec 2006 Location: South Oxfordshire
Posts: 1,379
| | | Re: Idioms and Phrases
A few more come to mind.
One mans meat is another mans poison.
A penny for your thoughts.
If I had a magic wand.
Sail against the wind.
Paul
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Don't blow it - good planets are hard to find. |
26-10-2007, 11:07 PM
|  | Member of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 295
| | | Re: Idioms and Phrases
Old age doesn't come alone. (i.e. arthritis etc) |
27-10-2007, 08:01 AM
|  | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Leigh, Lancashire
Posts: 1,819
| | | Re: Idioms and Phrases
Spend a penny............ 
When He (God) shakes his spade at you - it will be time (to die).........
This one was told to me often by an old neighbour, and sadly true as she is no longer with us, a 'reet lancashire lass she wore' and 92 when the spade shook..........
and in the same vein 'hands like spades' (built for hard work)
and for BIG spiders in the house - 'it had work boots on'.........!
Pauline |
27-10-2007, 11:04 AM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Derbyshire
Posts: 1,732
| | | Re: Idioms and Phrases
Half a job bob !!!
Plenty of these at work
jen xxx |
28-10-2007, 05:26 AM
| | Commander of the Wild Empire | | Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Leigh, Lancashire
Posts: 1,819
| | | Re: Idioms and Phrases
Quote:
Originally Posted by jdurbo Half a job bob !!!
Plenty of these at work
jen xxx | Which makes me think straight away of
'a Friday afternoon job'..........!!  When something is badly made) D
And for going fast in the car (or on a motorbike as my colleague does) variously:
Putting your foot down (on the accelerator)
Thrashing it..........
Wellying it........
Where's the fire? (For folk speeding past you when you want to do the same but you've got your aged mother in the car.............) LOL!
and back to spending pennies - 'Going to see a man about a dog' ...........................
Pauline
Last edited by PMG; 28-10-2007 at 05:34 AM.
Reason: Thought of more!
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