British Sayings - What do they Really Mean?

    • Gold Top Dog

    British Sayings - What do they Really Mean?

    Someone just told me that B'asia looks "daft as a brush". Now... he said "no offense", and I'm taking none, but I wondered... what exactly does "daft" mean to a British person?  More specifically, "daft as a brush".

    I learned the other day that "blimey" came from "may God blind me"  

    I thought maybe we could have a discussion about some British terms.  And find out if B'asia is really daft as a brush...


    • Gold Top Dog

    I think daft is silly/crazy. It would apply I think with the tongue out like that LOL.

    • Gold Top Dog

    Gina's right....daft means "sort of dense in a silly kind of way"....basically...it's sort of hard to describe.

    "Daft as a brush" just means that an inanimate object doesn't have much sense. 

    • Gold Top Dog

    Hey Kate, Onslow in that show with the Bucket's he says "barmy" or 'balmy"? which is it....it means off your rocker/certifiable right? He always says it in relation to Daisy's crazy old dad.

    • Gold Top Dog

    "Barmy"...and yep!  You got the definition right LOL.   

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    rwbeagles

    Hey Kate, Onslow in that show with the Bucket's he says "barmy" or 'balmy"? which is it....it means off your rocker/certifiable right? He always says it in relation to Daisy's crazy old dad.

     

    Oh, gosh, you watch Keeping Up Appearances, too?  What a riot, huh?  I haven't watched it much lately, tho.  Seems like everytime I get the chance, it's one I've seen already.

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    micksmom
    Seems like everytime I get the chance, it's one I've seen already.

    I've seen them all, multiple times, I watch em anyway lol. I have a step granny who's JUST like Hyacinth so it doesn't get old lol. I love me somE Onslow! He and Daisy need their own show...they are SO funny!

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    rwbeagles
    It would apply I think with the tongue out like that

     

    I could understand that, too, if he had see that picture. But the pics he saw were the ones that I determined to be the best pictures of her... Maybe my baby just naturally looks daft...

    • Gold Top Dog

    well, in that case he was barmy, tell him to bugge...oops that's a bad one...don't say that, say "push off" maybe.

    • Gold Top Dog

    There was a PBS special recently called "Life Lessons from Onslow." It was really funny - Onslow was a "host" of an educational seminar on personal relationships and such things - and his "insightful advice" was illustrated with clips from the show.  It was played during pledge month, so when they took a break, the actor (Geoffrey Hughes) was in the studio -- he's quite different out of character, he seemed genuinely nice and pretty funny.  I don't know if they'll repeat it anytime soon - but watch for it if you're a "Keeping Up Appearances" fan -- we were cracking up at the old clips, even though we'd seen all of them!

    Back to topic . . .  I love British colloquialisms.  Even though I don't always understand the full nuances of them, they seem to hit the nail on the head!  That's why I love listening to Simon Cowell on "Idol."  I don't think he's as nasty as people think - he's just honest and has a way with words that cuts to the chase!

    My uncle always said "bloody" (he wasn't British), and somehow I picked that up as a kid, so I still say it.  I also like the word "bugger."  I've heard that both are considered relatively strong curse words in the UK, so it's fun to say them here and not upset people as much as I would if I said more typical American curse words!

    • Gold Top Dog

    Another thing I thought of . . . the lovely British accent makes sentences sound so much nicer than they would if spoken by an American. 

    When I was in London, I was behind a group of young school children at the zoo, who were clearly tired from a long day.  I heard one of them say:  "Teacher, my feet are hurting.  May we please go home now?"  If you read that with a British accent, you'll see how it didn't sound like the obnoxious whining of an American kid!

    Also, when out with a group of people at a pub, my friend's roommate stood up saying, "Anyone fancy going to the loo?"  Again, with the lovely accent, it sounded so much more civilized than if I were to say, "I'm going to the bathroom - anyone else have to go?"  Stick out tongue

    • Gold Top Dog

    I found a cool site that helps to decipher some of the silly old sayings people come out with.  A lot of it is not real nice! But people just say them without thinking mostly.

    http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/5/messages/1308.html

    Look up things like "blow the man down"  or "limey" .  Blimey would be in this I think.

    • Gold Top Dog

    This one is good!

    about sneeze blessings

    Posted by Lap of the Goddess on September 18, 2004

    I know that the use of 'bless you' when someone sneezes has previously been discussed here. But this morning I discovered more while doing my Saturday morning newspaper reading.

    I read an article where a man who didn't believe in 'blessings' resented having to say 'bless you' when someone sneezed, and equally resented it being said to him.

    He wrote into a magazine to discuss the etiquette of doing this.

    The reply discussed the origins, eg. the Bubonic Plague and the need to offer blessings to protect them from harm. But he then mentioned other cultures who do the same thing for similar reasons, eg. Germany's Gesundheit, meaning 'good health' - as a way to ward off evil: they believed that sneezing momentarily expelled the soul from the body, allowing demons to enter through the nose.

    The Ancient Romans apparently said "long may you live" presumably in Roman, as a form of congratulations, because sneezing was thought to expel all the bad energy from the body.

    Egyptian Muslims apparently say "praise be to Allah" as a gesture of religious celebration: they believe sneezing is a cause for great joy because the world was created out of one of Allah's sneezes - which the writer adds, he guesses finally explains Greenland (a little unkind, but I liked it).

    The writer goes onto suggest it's just a nice, harmless gesture of caring and kindness, shared by people everywhere. So maybe this guys should just smile and be grateful when offered such a blessing. I tend to agree.

    Anyway, what intrigued me here is that so many cultures, with such distance between them, seem to believe that a sneeze has so much power. Does anyone know of any other cultures with other slants on this?

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    rwbeagles

    ...I've seen them all, multiple times, I watch em anyway lol...

     

    It's on here opposite one of my favorite sports now, which is why I don't catch it every week anymore.

     

    ...I have a step granny who's JUST like Hyacinth so it doesn't get old lol...

    She reminds me a lot of my grand aunt that passed away a couple of years ago. 

    ...I love me somE Onslow! He and Daisy need their own show...they are SO funny!

     

    They're a hoot, aren't they?  Yea, they definitely need their own show.

    You know what's funny, according to our friend in England, that show is a bigger hit here in the States then over there.  And Patricia Rutledge (who plays Hyacinth) is a serious actress.  I did happen to catch her breifly in something else on PBS a couple of years ago.  Couldn't get past the Hyacinth thing, tho.

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    FourIsCompany
    Someone just told me that B'asia looks "daft as a brush". Now... he said "no offense", and I'm taking none, but I wondered... what exactly does "daft" mean to a British person?  More specifically, "daft as a brush".

     

    We used to say that about our dog (or anyone really) when they were acting kind of mad or goofy.  I had never stopped to ponder where the saying came from! 

    FourIsCompany
    I learned the other day that "blimey" came from "may God blind me"  

    I never knew that! 

    Keeping up Appearances is not what I would call Really Great British Comedy.  And we are NOT like that.  Most of us anyway.  You should watch Fawlty Towers instead.  We're not like that either, but Cleese is a comedy genius.