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Local sayings from yesteryear!


peterinfrance

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On 14/03/2021 at 11:42, Paul Worrall said:

My partner's Grandad who orginally came from Staveley had loads of expressions and stories. My favourite expression was to call somebody a 'Warsop'. I Warsop was a person who left doors open. Warsop is also a village in North Nottinghamshire. Having heard him call people a 'Warsop' I imagined a village with no doors on the houses!

I never got to the bottom of the connection between leaving Open Doors and a village Nr Worksop, has anybody else ever heard this expression?

Wazzie Worrall. 

http://www.visitoruk.com/Mansfield/warsop-C592-V14336.html#

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When we were kids my Grandad used to tell my brother and I off when we were play-fighting, by ordering us to 'gi or rompin' abaht!'

 

My Nan had some absolute corkers too, 'feather and flip' for bed was a memorable one but I'm aware this was Cockney rhyming slang rather than 'Sheffieldish'

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If something was not working as it should, it used to be described as "cronky". I've not heard the word used since the early 60s.

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Oh Yes!  remember it well. Mum used to say it if something was lop-sided or had become un-attached.

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Hi. There are Sheffield sayings/expressions coming from All Over the place - Excellent!

I've remembered another saying from My Grandmother, who was describing the best times to eat apples.

Gold in the Morning. Silver in the afternoon. Lead at Night!

The moral of the story being, don't eat apples at Night, they'll give You indigestion...

Wazzie Worrall.

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Not particular a Sheffield saying, but connected with the apple story, is that Apples are good for your teeth. Which is false of course since Apples contain acid, which will attack the enamel! 

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Guest leksand

My paternal Grandfather was from a good way north of Sheffield but, as it turns out, his mother was born in Darnall & brought up thereabouts and then Masbrough. His accent and those of his brothers were definitely a bit harder than those of my Gran's quarter, and the rest of their ancestry was well embedded in a small area around where they were born. If we left the door open he'd tell us to "put wood in t'oil", though I think used hole otherwise, & he also cooked incredible Yorkshire & Seasoning. I'm not sure either of those things are or were commonplace in the part of West Riding where they were from.

Anyway, recently a phrase he used as an expression of suprise came to mind. I've no idea of it's origin, but on the off chance it's something he picked up from his mum here goes.

"Well, I'll go to humma"

Does it mean anything to anyone?

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Obviously an expression of surprise such as...." I'll go to ar back dooer" and " I'll go to end of ar street".?????

A quick look up and Humma appears to be a word for a horse or an Icelandic word for hemming ( a garment)

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Let me first of all thank all the contributors, past, present, and future to this topic. When I started it I had hoped for a good response as anyone would, but I am astonished at how many of you have a story to tell about your family sayings.  I know it's a hard job remembering them and I am certain we have more to come. If I think of any I try to jot them down, so I do not forget. Here's a couple more I jotted down.

Gee ower.........Stop it

Nah then...........A bit unsure as to the meaning. Can anyone help?

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The phrase continues...." Nah then thee,ars tha?" A simple request asking how somebody is....often the response would be...." Alrayt, ars tha"?

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On 30/03/2021 at 19:03, peterinfrance said:

.

Gee ower.........Stop it

 

Definitely in use during my boyhood years in Sheffield. I'd add that the "G" is hard - "Gie"? - and I assume it's a corruption of "Give over", which in itself is a rather odd expression if you think about it.

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26 minutes ago, Hopman said:

Even odder is:

How

do

you

do?

Only odd because we've somewhat lost the original sense.  Round about 1200 the phrase "Ȝif þou þis nelt don þou salt don worse" (If thou this not done, thou shalt do worse = If you don't do this, you'll do worse).  This is the earliest example in the OED of "to do" being used in the sense of "to fare" or "to get on".  A little later there is "‘We sal’, he said, ‘do nu ful wele’" (We shall, he said, do now full well) and later still "Your horsyn do well" (horses).

In 1697 the phrase "There, how d'ye do now?" was recorded and by 1738 "How do you do, Tom?".

You might be thought a bit odd, but "How do you fare" would be a modern replacement.  Anyhow, thanks for triggering off a wander through the OED, always fascinating.

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Thanks, gents, most thought-provoking - in my case, provoking the thought that the corresponding French expression, being the equivalent of "How do you go?" If I'm speaking to someone I know fairly well, I tend to ask "Are you thriving?" which is (I hope) a bit more logical.

 

As a saucy coda, I think it was in one of the early Bond films in which JB asked a woman "How do you do?" at which she pouted her lips, stuck her knockers out and replied "I do very well". But that's wandering into a different topic.

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One rather coarse expression that I remember from way past refered  to enquiries about the possible location of a missing object.

It was " It's up the pigs **** on the second shelf".

Not being very familiar with porcine anatomy I thought this to be a rather unlikely .   😄

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A phrase that was used in our house and as far as I remember it was the only place I ever heard it, if ever anyone had a tendency to scratch an itchy bum, we’ve all done it haven’t we?, my mother especially always said “ what’s up have you got a crumb in your eye?”

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Here is another but I am not sure if my suggested meaning is correct?

I was scraumin about

 

Meaning Rummaging or searching

comments please

 

 

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I remember a slightly different meaning.

An example might be "Stop scraumin about behind the sofa".

In other words, down on all fours getting into places you shouldn't, or as a young child trying to escape the clutches of a parent or grown up who was trying to restrain you.

 

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Thanks Hilldweller and Tozzin.  Having seen your comments I am sure you are both on the money with this one.

I bow to your greater knowledge!

 

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22 hours ago, tozzin said:

Scromin was what you did on trees, aka climbing trees .

The yell of "stop scrawmin about on t' floor in thi new clothes" was often heard on Whit Monday.

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When playing the now very dangerous game of Conkers (Bonkers!!!) if the Conkers got entangled the first one to shout “ snags “ had two goes instead of one.

59595647-FC4A-4717-A324-73B7E40F3FD3.jpeg

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