Multi-national cultural expressions and idioms | Page 6 | Golden Skate

Multi-national cultural expressions and idioms

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
One of the Cypriot skaters I have adopted (Laura Farran) has a lot of family connections there.

James Min is from SA too. :)

Over 24 hours later, and I still haven't worked this one out...

In the US, 'rubber' is a slang term for...how can I phrase this in a way that will get past any filters?...I'll go extremely old-fashioned and say a 'French letter'. :laugh:
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
James Min is from SA too. :)

Better than that, until James moved to Arutunian, he and Laura were actually team-mates, both training under Richard Laidlaw.

There is a really nice photo of the three of them together, which I put into the video of when I interviewed her in September 2017.

Here is the direct link to the point where the photo is in the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT7aRYX-aPE&t=661

In the US, 'rubber' is a slang term for...how can I phrase this in a way that will get past any filters?...I'll go extremely old-fashioned and say a 'French letter'. :laugh:

Yep, that worked on Google. :p

Never heard that phrase you used before. It may be old fashioned, but it sounds more poetic than any of the other terms I have heard for it.

CaroLiza_fan
 

hanyuufan5

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Joined
May 19, 2018
Haha, about "fanny", it is a very, very tame, almost prissy word for buttocks in America. Like, milder than "butt" even, more on par with "hiney" or "duff". No one would bat an eyelash at a 4-year-old saying it.

It was also used as a nickname for Frances and similar/related names. A lot of immigrants named Franciszka or Franciska Americanized their names to "Fanny". :laugh:
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Country
United-States
In Cornwall, we call them "tackers". Or "shrieky, sticky things"... ;)

Incidentally, for the Poldark fans (which is pronounced "Pol-DARK" rather than "POL-dark" or "Poledark", the Cornish have another version which you can find on YouTube by looking for Poldark Proper Version. It's overdubbed to be more realistic to the indigenous population...

That could be interesting :)

One of my great grandmothers’ last name was Tyke. At least I thought it was Tyke, everyone said Tyke.

Come to find out it’s spelled “Tyack” and evidently means farmer in Cornish? :confused: I still spell “Tyke”. :laugh:
 

CaroLiza_fan

EZETTIE LATUASV IVAKMHA
Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 25, 2012
Country
Northern-Ireland
Haha, about "fanny", it is a very, very tame, almost prissy word for buttocks in America. Like, milder than "butt" even, more on par with "hiney" or "duff". No one would bat an eyelash at a 4-year-old saying it.

Never heard of "hiney" before. In fact, I'm trying to work out what the correct pronounciation would be. Is it like the horse/donkey cross? Or does it rhyme with "tiny"?

I have a friend with the surname "Duff". And when we were at school, she went on an exchange project to America. I didn't realise that it meant that in America, so I dread to think what the American kids were saying about her behind her back. :drama:

It was also used as a nickname for Frances and similar/related names. A lot of immigrants named Franciszka or Franciska Americanized their names to "Fanny". :laugh:

That's why I feel sorry for people called "Fanny". And not just because of what the word itself means over here. But also because of the phrase "Sweet Fanny Adams". If you are into tales of gruesome murders, the story of Fanny Adams would be very interesting. But, in the years since she was killed, the phrase has been hijacked, with her name now representing two other words that start with the same letters.

It's amazing how the same language can develop in different ways in different parts of the world.

CaroLiza_fan
 

el henry

Go have some cake. And come back with jollity.
Record Breaker
Joined
Mar 3, 2014
Country
United-States
Duff is very mild here in the US; I don’t think anyone who would make fun of someone, although never say never;)

I’ve seen the spelling “heiney” more often: high-knee.

And a phase I learned that I use sometimes, “my aunt Fanny”. As in, “That jump was not UR, my Aunt Fanny”:biggrin:
 

WednesdayMarch

Nicer When Fed
Medalist
Joined
Mar 24, 2019
Country
United-Kingdom
Never heard of "hiney" before. In fact, I'm trying to work out what the correct pronounciation would be. Is it like the horse/donkey cross? Or does it rhyme with "tiny"?

I have a friend with the surname "Duff". And when we were at school, she went on an exchange project to America. I didn't realise that it meant that in America, so I dread to think what the American kids were saying about her behind her back. :drama:



That's why I feel sorry for people called "Fanny". And not just because of what the word itself means over here. But also because of the phrase "Sweet Fanny Adams". If you are into tales of gruesome murders, the story of Fanny Adams would be very interesting. But, in the years since she was killed, the phrase has been hijacked, with her name now representing two other words that start with the same letters.

It's amazing how the same language can develop in different ways in different parts of the world.

CaroLiza_fan

The O'Carolan tune "Miss Frances Power" is also known as "Fanny Power" and was my absolute favourite to play for the recessional at weddings. Brides who had no idea what to choose almost always went with that when I suggested it, and they'd walk back down the aisle laughing their heads off at the joke. More than one even winked at me as they passed my harp. :biggrin:

And for those who might have struggled to find Proper Poldark... This is the Episode 2 bonus edition. It's a joy to watch from Episode 1 but this is my favourite ever.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAUiiyKUugI&t=1s
 

dorispulaski

Wicked Yankee Girl
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Country
United-States
Some odd sayings from my family:

Busy as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs
This is the same as Busy as a one-armed paperhanger

Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick
(Said of a deal or a raise, when you come out barely ahead.)

Not my dog.

The last May need some explanation. There is very old joke about the New England Yankee, sitting on his porch. A city feller comes up to him and asks him, "Does your dog bite?" The old Yankee says, "Nup." So the city slicker pets the dog, and the dog bites him. The irate slicker says, "I thought you said your dog doesn't bite?"

And the old Yankee says, with a shrug, "Not my dog."

When used it has several possible meanings. One is the Polish one, Not my circus, not my monkeys.

But it also is a warning to ask the right questions before taking action, and assume nothing, all good Yankee ideas.

And my mother's advice for dealing with jerks, "Smile! It kills'em."
 

Harriet

Record Breaker
Joined
Oct 23, 2017
Country
Australia
Haha, about "fanny", it is a very, very tame, almost prissy word for buttocks in America. Like, milder than "butt" even, more on par with "hiney" or "duff". No one would bat an eyelash at a 4-year-old saying it.

I've never come across that usage for 'duff' before. In Australia 'up the duff' means pregnant, which must lead to some confusion in the US!
 

Arriba627

TWO-TIME WORLD CHAMPION 🔥
Record Breaker
Joined
Jun 2, 2014
Country
United-States
How about "colder than a well-digger's rear end", and conversely, "Hotter than satan's crotch"!
 

Ruthypegs

On the Ice
Joined
May 5, 2017
Country
United-Kingdom
I have a question for British speakers. When I started learning English as a kid (long time ago), I knew that children from grade 1 to grade 12 are pupils/school girl or boy, and become students when they enter a University. I know what I learned was British English. But I don't know if this nomenclature has changed in time everywhere, or it's just N America that calls all kids in school students. Does pupil has any meaning now?

I'm British and live in the UK and would still refer to school-age children as pupils or schoolboys/girls (however, schoolboy/girl is quite an old-fashioned term these days, and not used so much).
 

Ruthypegs

On the Ice
Joined
May 5, 2017
Country
United-Kingdom
I need to fess up, I know Pittsburgh from incredibly frequent travel, and from family, but not a native of the western part of our great Commonwealth (there are four states in the US that call themselves Commonwealths, and PA is one;) ) But in no part of the state have I heard "weans".

Then again, like my own Cornish and Irish ancestors, it was well over a 100, heck 150, years ago that we had a great Celtic immigration, so much of the language would be lost.

However, one quirk to Pittsburgh, but not to the rest of the state, is that they swap a gerund for the past participle after "need". A house doesn't need cleaning, it "needs cleaned". A shirt doesn't need ironing, it "needs ironed".

Does that come from anywhere else? Or just from the three rivers itself?

the "needs cleaned" type structure is something you hear a lot in Scotland - I've never heard it used anywhere else in the UK
 

TontoK

Hot Tonto
Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 28, 2013
Country
United-States
Not my dog.

The last May need some explanation. There is very old joke about the New England Yankee, sitting on his porch. A city feller comes up to him and asks him, "Does your dog bite?" The old Yankee says, "Nup." So the city slicker pets the dog, and the dog bites him. The irate slicker says, "I thought you said your dog doesn't bite?"

And the old Yankee says, with a shrug, "Not my dog."

When used it has several possible meanings. One is the Polish one, Not my circus, not my monkeys.

But it also is a warning to ask the right questions before taking action, and assume nothing, all good Yankee ideas.

And my mother's advice for dealing with jerks, "Smile! It kills'em."

OK, "not my dog" might have a similar meaning to someone in the southern US, because I've heard the expression in a slightly different context.

As in the common expression, "I don't have a dog in that fight." Which means "it's none of my business" or "I don't have a preference with the outcome."

Usage: My neighbors are feuding over a fence line. I'm staying out of it. I don't have a dog in that fight.
 

skylark

Gazing at a Glorious Great Lakes sunset
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Joined
Aug 12, 2014
Country
United-States
the "needs cleaned" type structure is something you hear a lot in Scotland - I've never heard it used anywhere else in the UK

Interesting. A lot of Americans of Scots-Irish descent merely identified themselves as Irish ... and why wouldn't they, as their folks had been in America for awhile, and their folks had been in Northern Ireland for a hundred years or so before that. But the folks around Pittsburgh said it, as reported by el henry. It's possible that their Irish roots were Northern Irish and originally Scots-Irish. And originally Scottish!

Also referring to el henry's comments:

I think the term "hiney" (which I dislike intensely!), pronounced "heiney," to mean "rear end" may have come from the word "hind." My dad would say, "hind end," meaning the last in a long line of something or a series, as in "that boy came in at the hind end of the crowd." I also heard "hind" many times like this example from Google dictionary: "He snagged the calf by the hind leg." But I've never had the same feeling of dislike for the expression "hind end" or the word "hind." Go figure.

After I grew old enough to read extensively and found out German soldiers were sometimes called "Fritz" or "Heine" (exaggeratedly pronounced "Heiney" by their WWI or II enemies, I liked it even less.

To go farther back in this thread: I heard the term "Cakewalk" the way Mathman and Tontok said, as a fun Musical Chairs game where the last person standing got a cake for a prize. A good fundraiser.

A Cakewalk dance as it became popular in the early 1900s is featured in Judy Garland's movie "Meet Me In St. Louis," which takes place in 1906. Judy performs the dance with her little sister at a party. It's not done as a parody there; it's just a fun dance, a lot like a Soft Shoe.

That doesn't negate the fact that it was done as a parody in some places, as Doris said. It has everything to do with intent and the way it's done.
 

hanyuufan5

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Joined
May 19, 2018
I've never come across that usage for 'duff' before. In Australia 'up the duff' means pregnant, which must lead to some confusion in the US!

That has so much potential for causing chaos. I'm glad I know about it now so if anyone says it to me, I won't yell at them for oversharing. :laugh:
 
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