Old sayings that you learned from your parents or grandparents...

[Raven]

I just posted one on GD and it got me thinking...where do these sayings come from, is there any truth to them?

I posted "You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear." I'm also remembering "A bird in the hand is worth 2 in the bush."

What does "take it with a grain of salt" mean? Do you guys have any favorites and an explanation of where they came from?

[bif]

1. "That's shit for the birds"--from a Great Aunt.

Not really sure what it means.

[Raven]

2. Are you sure it wasn't "That's shit FROM the birds"?

[bif]

29. Nope. She insisted that that's what the phrase was

[WinkyDink]

41. Definitely is "for."

[Raven]

89. I get it. "THat's for the birds." Meaning it's nothing important. n/t

[pscot]

69. This thread is a hoot!

:toast:

[panader0]

124. I believe that expression came from watching the birds eat

the undigested oats from horse shit.

[JohnnyLib2]

49. "That sorry son of a bitch"

applied to Nixon and Reagan by my very D mother

[geardaddy]

3. My republican grandpa:

"That Nixon's so crooked, he can't lie in bed straight."

[SteppingRazor]

18. Reminds me of the line from Hunter Thompson's obituary of Nixon:

Nixon was so crooked he had to have aides screw his pants on in the morning.

[ohiosmith]

4. "Conniption fit" everyone one my dad's side said this whenever anyone freaked out.

"She's having a conniption fit." "Don't tell him, he'll have a conniption fit"
:rofl:

[Raven]

6. Dictionary definition: "Fit of anger, hysteria, tantrum."

[SteppingRazor]

21. Yeah, conniption fit is actually redundant.

Grammar police -- awaaayyyyy!!

[surrealAmerican]

86. I had always assumed that "conniption" ...

... was Yiddish, and that people who lengthened it to "conniption fit" were translating for a non-Yiddish speaking listener.

Websters lists it as "origin unknown", so I guess I've been wrong about that.

[Bunny]

34. We converted that to "connip-shit".

Means the same thing. :D

[musette_sf]

5. "Tired of living"

uttered by my mother as an epithet about people doing dumb/dangerous/idiotic things

[Zephie]

7. "Look with your eyes, not with your ass" - Grandma

Proper usage when someone is only half looking for a missing object and everyone else in the area is fully aware that you're looking right at it without seeing it.

She was quite the firebrand.

[AllenVanAllen]

78. My parents never used old sayings.

Although, my mother used to tell me, " Life is as difficult as you make it." and "A day wasted you can never get back." but I'm pretty sure she came up with those herself. Even as a kid I saw great wisdom in both messages.





on edit: I meant to respond to the main thread. :hi:

[Bladian]

8. Jiminy (sp?) crickets!-Grandpa. He says that a lot. n/t

[Glorfindel]

9. A couple I've always loved, fairly common where I grew up

in the southern Applachians of Georgia. "Heave and set like a ram at a gatepost" and "Take it slow and steady like a cat eating a grindstone."

[NightWatcher]

10. "Do it right or do it twice"

great words to live by from the hardest working man I've ever known, seen, or heard stories of, my grand father

[Raven]

19. That's a little bit like "Measure twice, cut once."

[ashling]

105. A stitch in time

saves nine

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. "Who was your maid last week?"

- Mom's response to kid's demand to do something the kid should have done (wash dishes, etc.).

"I'm not running a short order restaurant."

- Mom's response to kid's complaint about what was for dinner.

"That'd stink a dog off a gut wagon."

- Grandpa's description of anything nasty or rotten.

"Hotter than the mill-tails of hell."

- Dad's description of hot weather.

"Forstuelsa" - Mom used this word to describe something chaotic or messy. Norwegian for "sprain" or "injury."

If somebody was really stupid, Dad would say he "couldn't piss a hole straight in the snow."

[Raven]

90. A variation on that: "Who died and left you servants?"

[meow2u3]

119. Another variation on that: This isn't a restaurant!

Mom' snappy comeback to kid's complaining about what she put on the table: "This isn't Mother X's (last name deliberately omitted) restaurant"!

edit: rephrased post

[ashling]

107. variant of "That'd stink a dog off a gut wagon."

Knock a buzzard off a shit wagon

[Enrique]

12. "looks like the wrath of God"

my Dad says that about everything. :-)

[hyphenate]

13. A bag of wool with a string tied around it

Colder than a whore's tit

My dad used to says, "Jesus, jumping Jesus!"

I'm so used to them, it's difficult to know which ones originated from them.

[ashling]

108. var. of Colder than a whore's tit

Colder than a witch's tit

Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.
- one origin I've seen for that one: Naval warships used to line up cannon balls (iron) on a contraption called a monkey which was made of brass. A sudden drop in temperatue would cause the cannon balls to heave off.

[LeftinOH]

14. Not a saying, just what we commonly heard: "Go set on the davenport while I fetch

something out th' icebox."

[BrendaBrick]

98. Ha ha ha....icebox eh?

must have been sitting right next to the *Victrola* :-)

[Tikki]

15. "Water seeks it's own level"....

It was suppose to make me think about good/bad choices....I guess.


Tikki

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

16. I remembered a few more:

"Colder than a witch's tit."

"Looks like a sausage tied in the middle." (fat person with too-tight clothes)

"If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you want to do it, too?"

"Don't make me stop this car..."

[Texasgal]

96. heh heh!

Grandma used to say for people with too tight clothing:

"looks like two pigs fightin' in a blanket"

:rofl:

Large breasts:

"like a busted can of bisquits!"

[meow2u3]

121. My mom's New York variant

"If your friends jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you"?

[mysuzuki2]

17. "you little son of a bitch"

[SteppingRazor]

20. My mom's famous for throwing these things out there, and she has some especially offbeat ones.

One that springs immediately to mind was, when describing someone dressed to the nines (hey, there's an old saying now...) and strutting down some steps, she said that he "looked like Astor's pet horse."

[MiddleFingerMom]

22. Google etymology sites.

.
.
.
A byrde yn honde ys better than three yn the wode. (c.1530)
.
.
.
For the birds recorded from 1944, supposedly in allusion to birds eating from droppings of horses and cattle.
.
.
.

[7wo7rees]

23. Your lack of planning

does not for me an emergency make.

[raccoon]

84. Did Yoda say that to Luke? nt

[Moondog]

24. Once, when I had _really_ screwed up,

my father said "what really pisses me off about you is that for twenty five cents you could have been prevented."

I guess condoms were a lot cheaper, way back when . . . .

[hamsterjill]

25. Wise words

From my father (who I think may have been an Eleanor Roosevelt fan):

Never ask anyone to do something that you're not willing to do yourself. Funny thing was...he expected all of us to LIVE by that, too!!! LOL

[Raven]

26. 2 from my father...to my brothers: "Keep your mind above your belt buckle."

To all of us: "Stick to the main tent and avoid the sideshows." Loved those!

[MichiganVote]

27. Enough to gag a maggot off the back of a gut wagon. (prolly referring 2 republicans)

[jcboon]

28. My Dad

When we kids didn't want to do something and said we didn't feel good to get out of it, he'd say
"Most of the world's work is done by people who don't feel very good".

[bif]

30. "Crimenatley" and Crimeny Pelts"

[bif]

31. "Give me back my dentures, you little shit!"

I used to hear that a lot from my Grandpa.

[RebelOne]

32. My mother always said, "Pretty is as pretty does."

Not really sure what she meant.

[Kali]

33. Don't chouse those cows.

never knew the primary difinition of that word and several on-line dictionaries don't list this usage as even a secondary definition. Interesting. And I have never heard the word used by anybody else for either meaning.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chouse%5B2%5D

[abq e streeter]

35. "Oy Vey"....(it's pretty much all-purpose too.)

[cherokeeprogressive]

36. If y'ain't cheatin', y'ain't tryin'.

That was my Grandpa when he was teaching me to play poker using oreo cookies as chips.

[Morizovich]

37. "Never stand in front of a moving bus."

Hasn't failed me yet!

[MerryBlooms]

38. A woman's heart shines through her eyes - my aunt Buttons. n/t

[Ineeda]

39. Overheard when I was quite young,

well before I 'got it' but I remember clearly Dad saying to his brother-in-law: her skirt was so short she needed a hairnet.

[dixiegrrrrl]

40. From G'Ma: "don't get your tits in a wringer"

which i think was her version of "don't get your panties in a wad".

My Mom was always threatening us picky eaters with the visions of "children are starving in China, ya know"
to which we would ask "why don't you mail this crap to them, then"?
and then we would duck.
She could move surprisingly fast.

[blueamy66]

42. My co-worker uses this phrase when a customer pisses her off....

Go shit up a drainpipe....credit given to her mother.

[WinkyDink]

43. I believe it was a salty Sicilian phrase about what one could do with oneself in Napoli.

;-)

[msanthrope]

57. "Vaffanapoli?" Mine said it, too. n/t

[woo me with science]

44. I never drink water.

That's the stuff fish fuck in.

[GoneOffShore]

45. "Wish in one hand, spit in the other and see which fills up the fastest."

Wouldn't give him air if he was in a bottle.

He moves like the dead lice are fallin' off him.

[Curmudgeoness]

50. Spit? Hmmm, my dad must have just been more vulgar.

I remember hearing that allllllll of the time.

[GoneOffShore]

56. Mine was just as vulgar, but my mom wasn't.

So he changed the expression - at least when he said it in front of her.

[grntuscarora]

46. "Life is tough, but

it beats the alternative."

My Dad used to say that one a lot.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

47. "Poop or get off the pot."

"You make a better door than a window." (spoken to child standing in front of TV screen)

[latebloomer]

111. "You're not made of glass"

another comment made to child standing in front of TV.

[latebloomer]

115. My mom said "Shit or get off the pot- I want a grandchild!"

to my then-boyfriend, with whom I had no intention of marrying nor procreating.

:eyes:

[KamaAina]

48. Grandpa: "Up your kilts!"

Scottish, of course. Something one (not him) would say to Boner or Cantor.

[Curmudgeoness]

51. Don't get your panties in a twist, from mom.

Also from mom, watch what you wish for.

From dad, if you don't behave, I'm getting the belt.

[rug]

52. "Wipe your ass. Again."

[Recovered Repug]

53. My grandma would always talk about people getting their

"just deserts". For the longest time, I thought the saying was "just desserts". A good or bad dessert would depend on what you did. I was embarrassingly old before I found out the real meaning of the saying.

[Orrex]

54. "God damn it! Why do you look like the milk man?"

But I'm sure that this one was heard in every household. Right?




Um.

[bluesbassman]

55. "Sticks and stones may break your bones...

But a .45'll put you down baby!"

I grew up in a rough neighborhood. :(

[REP]

58. "it's an ill wind that blows no good" and "it's darkest before it's pitch black"

Yes, I know these are not the original versions, but that how they were said for generations. I was an adult before I knew the real versions.

[REP]

59. "Teach your grandmother to suck eggs" and "The egg teaching the chicken"

[REP]

60. "Whatever doesn't kill us makes us stronger" - Nietzsche but quoted by my grandmother a lot

[REP]

61. "Life!s a shit sandwich - another day, another bite" - my father

[REP]

62. "Like butter wouldn't melt in her mouth"

[mysuzuki2]

63. when presented with something that was ok but less than ideal

my dad would say "well it's better than a sharp stick in the eye." Usually he was right about that.

[pscot]

64. You won't have a pot to piss i n

or a window to throw it out of. Like Grant took Richmond, applied to anyone who had suffered an egregious reversal of fortune. And, In a hundred years you won't know a thing about it.

[nolabear]

65. My grandmother: "Another nickle and she could have got a yellow one."

Said when a woman in a bright yellow dress went by. Same applied for various colors and items.

[nolabear]

66. My Aunt Patty: "Happier'n a dead hog in the sunshine."

I never did understand it, but it is a fine picture and I use it to this day.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

67. Don't remember where I heard these...

"Ain't had so much fun since the hogs et Grandpaw."

"Uglier than an armful of assholes."

"Too dumb to pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel."

[fishwax]

71. hadn't heard that second one before

:rofl:

[kwassa]

68. Hot enough to roast the balls off a brass monkey.

The recent heat wave reminded me of this one.

I drove cab as a part-time job while I was in college. One summer day, a woman who looked like my grandmother got into my cab. To make conversation, I started off with the wildly original "Hot enough for you?"

Her response: "Hot enough to roast the balls off a brass monkey."

I was so shocked that I've never fully recovered from this moment.

[fishwax]

70. even pennicillin won't cure stupidity

one of my dad's favorites :)

[fishwax]

72. as a response to compaints: you wouldn't be happy if we hung you with a new rope

[PassingFair]

73. "What canna be cured, must be endured".

My Scottish Grannie.

:hug:

[blue neen]

74. "Oh, I look like the last rose of summer!"

That's what Grandma said when she thought her appearance wasn't "up to par" (another famous one). :)

[blue neen]

75. "It's colder than a well-digger's ass in the Klonkike."

:) from Dad and Uncle Bill.

[murielm99]

76. My dad used to accuse my brother of being

"dead from the ass a hundred different ways."

That meant he wasn't doing his share of the chores with any enthusiasm.

[ornotna]

77. "Your compact is open and your lipstick is hanging out"

What my Mom would tell us when our zipper was down.

[KT2000]

79. "Send us a card when you get a job"

when you let the cat out and "just for ducks."

[csziggy]

80. Here are some from a letter written about my gggg?grandmother

The whatever great grandmother was born in Lincolnshire, England about 1790, married against her family's wishes and came to the US with her husband and children around 1828.

'If a person tried to do a great many things for which he or she
was not fitted she said "Jack of all trades and master of none."'

'You remembered about being as "Being as busy as a bee in a tar bucket."'

[csziggy]

81. "You could put somebody's eye out!"

Yelled by Mom as we were running with scissors, or sticks, or anything else sharp and potentially dangerous.

[HeiressofBickworth]

82. Every Saturday

when doling out the chores, my mother would say, "I want this house to look like no one lives here."

Doesn't that just give you the warm and fuzzies all over?

[raccoon]

83. "Straining at a gnat to swallow a camel."--My mother. It means someone

is making a big deal out of something trivial, while ignoring the elephant in the living room.

[bikebloke]

85. "They could eat an apple through a picket fence."

Regarding someone who was buck toothed.

[Darth_Kitten]

87. What my grandma used to say (via my Mom) - "Dog always shits on the biggest pile"

:hug: Awh, Grandma. :)

[Raven]

88. "Put this in your pipe and smoke it."

[FloridaJudy]

91. "Shrimps will whistle"

Having the meaning of "a cold day in hell" or "pigs will fly". I suspect it's a translation of a Russian folk saying, since I only heard it from my mother's family.

[meow2u3]

122. My mom put it this way

"When hell freezes over and the Devil goes ice skating." To which I responded: Hell has frozen over and the Devil is playing hockey in Buffalo (referring to Miroslav Satan). Mind you, this was back in 2001.

[txwhitedove]

92. Granny said, "No one can see that on a galloping horse." Me being the

ever galloping horse fretting over a spot on a shirt or imperfection. I was also "a bull in a china shop". "Pretty is as pretty does" was a favorite, stand up straight, why is your hair in your mouth, and in the summer got "dark as a little Mexican"... She never did make a fine lady out of me.

[RushIsRot]

93. A bird in the hand makes it awfully hard to blow your nose.

No, wait, that was from MAD Magazine.

[digonswine]

94. You can't make chicken salad outa chicken shit--

read it in a book--could be Prince of Tides--could mean if you start with the wrong materials(not just food), you can't expect the correct result. I like to use it to excuse my own culinary failures for lack of proper ingredients.

[Cary Vonfused]

95. "Useless as tits on a rooster"

That was one of my grandpa's favorites.

My dad used to always say "Christ on a crutch". I'm still not sure what that means!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

101. I heard "useless as tits on a boar-hog" from my dad.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

97. don't shit where you eat.

my dad.

[BrendaBrick]

99. You're gonna be in a world of hurt!

Also, "Where there's a will, there's a way"

Mimmie (french for grandma) used to say: Living the life of Riley!

[eShirl]

100. " 'I see,' said the blind man, as he took out his hammer and saw."

[Rowdyboy]

112. "I see said the blind man walking off the cliff backwards..."

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

102. Here's a few;

'you'll eat a bushel of dirt before you die'- Grandma- everything doesn't have to pass a white glove inspection

'shanks mare'- Mom- in answer to 'how will I get to (fill in the blank)? Translation- Walk!

'if it was a snake it would have bit you'- when I couldn't find something that was right in front of me

'cross my palm'- Mom, means 'are you going to pay for it?'

'the world sees you as you see yourself'- Dad- self explanitory :) :bounce:

[likesmountains 52]

103. "I'm going to sell you to the sheeny man." when we were naughty..

I never knew who or what the sheeny man was, but I knew I didn't want to be sold to him. Also, "If wishes were horses, beggars would ride."

[Neoma]

104. Fart Blossom.

[ashling]

106. Mom used to use

"Land o' Goshen"

[Rowdyboy]

109. "Shit fire and save matches" and "too dumb to pour piss out of a boot....

with the directions on the heel" were favorites from my childhood

[Rowdyboy]

110. "Your ass is grass and I'm a lawn mower".....my mom really had a way with words

[latebloomer]

113. "I'll knock you into the middle of next week"

and the ever popular, "Stop crying or I'll give you something to cry about!"

[latebloomer]

114. "Politics is crooks!"

an oft-repeated quotation by my union organizer dad, stolen from one of his members.

Some things never change.

[Ikonoklast]

116. "Heavier than a dead preacher." - Gramps.

"I don't blame him for being an idiot, I blame the idiot that hired him." - Dad.

"It's just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as it is a poor one." - Granma Nellie.

"I brought you into this world, and I can take you out, too." - Mom.

"You such-a sweet little boy, now stop-a you shit before I whack you." - Great Granma.

[saras]

117. Kwitcherdambellyakin - my dad's mother had a sampler with this single word cross-stitched on it

[latebloomer]

118. I love the way "the greatest generation" and older had such salty tongues.

The first words I ever heard out of my husband's grandmother's mouth were "You pain in the ass!", after we came into her living room, where she was sleeping in her chair in front of the TV.

She quickly recovered her manners when he said, "Grandma, I want you to meet my new girlfriend." :D

[ellenrr]

120. Jewish curse learned from my grand-mother

You should go away without your feet.

Also-
You should grow like an onion with your head in the ground.

I used to know how to say them in Yiddish but no more.

[meow2u3]

123. God didn't die and leave you in charge - Mom

Some more from my mom:

-- You're not going to church looking like that. You look like a cafone!

-- If my grandmother had wheels, she'd be a trolley car! - Mom's response to "if" sentences.

-- You look like Maggie off the pickle boat! - Mom's remark to us when we looked disheveled. One day, Mom took me to Nathan's for lunch. She ordered a shrimp boat, so I asked her, "Mommy, is that Maggie off the pickle boat"?

Now some from the rest:

My Italian grandpa had a foul mouth, but wouldn't swear in front of children, especially us. He forever said, "What is this nyit (his word for shit)?" Most of the time, he swore in Italian.

Close the door! I'm not heating the neighborhood! - Dad

[panader0]

125. "Get out of left field and get in there and start pitching" my dad

"Wake up and piss, the world's on fire." Jeannie's dad

[femmocrat]

126. None of mine are as colorful, but....

my dad always said, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything." and "Never volunteer!"

Those two pieces of advice have served me well. :)

[TuxedoKat]

127. From my dad: "What a bunch of Mickey Mouse"

or something like that to describe something or some situation that was particularly stupid, asisine or not well thought out.

[applegrove]

128. I say "oh my god" or "god only knows" or whatnot. And I'm not religious. My grandparents were

and I spent a lot of time with them growing up.

[LNM]

129. Quit your fighting or I'll knock you're heads together!!

My Mom. I thought she'd do it too.

My Dad: Quit your bellyaching.

[Little Star]

130. Mom to Dad when someone borrowed money.....

He'd rather die owe-ing ya than cheat ya out of it!


She also told him: You may be the head of this house but I'm the neck that turns the head!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

131. "Not worth the powder it would take to blow him to Hell"

My good ole gal East Texas mom. Had four years of college. Her parents came from Mississippi.

"Couldn't find his ass with both hands and a Ouija Board" :rofl:

"The world's in a melluva hess" --my grandmother who would not say hell or damn, and said "I suwanee" instead of "I swear". Stupid.

My dad, being a Damnyankee, from NE Ohio, taught me the term "Marble orchard" (cemetery) :rofl:
And "he got euchred" which meant swindled. I take it that euchre is a card game.

"Many a mickle makes a muckle" --never figured that one out. Irish maybe??

"some things are like makin' love to a widow -- you can't overdo it". (He must have had experience in that department)
"That preacher was dumb - had a toilet seat cut in half" :rofl:

"If they ever gave the world an enema, they'd insert it in Indiana Harbor" He said this after living there during Prohibition, and there were fresh bodies in the ditches from the gun battles between the bootleggers every morning.

Mom's advice: Men are like buses, there's always another one coming down the road.
Anybody can get a boyfriend. Any woman. There are lots of things worse than not having a boyfriend.

[KurtNYC]

132. Crazier than owl shit

"Shave and a haircut, 2 bits"
"Older than Methusala"
Don't cross your eyes, they may get stuck that way.

The one I never got was "killing 2 birds with one stone" -- was there a shortage of rocks? and why are we killing birds and worrying about the efficiency of the process?

[trackfan]

133. Study long, study wrong. n/t