Colder than a Witches Tit and other Mod insults!

[vetran]

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/b...t-b978616.html

Apparently our language is getting even less colourful

A

new poll has revealed a list of traditional British sayings which may become extinct despite the UK having one of the most rich and diverse languages in the world.

According to a study, there are 50 phrases that are in jeopardy of being lost from the English language.

Of those 2,000 people asked, 78 percent have never used the phrase “pearls before swine”.

A further 71 percent said they had never used “colder than a witch’s tit” or “nail your colours to the mast”.

In the poll, conducted by Perspectus Global, 70 percent do not wave goodbye with a “pip pip”.

in proper Gricer stylee pip pip old chaps!

BRITAIN’S ENDANGERED SAYINGS


1. Pearls before swine 78% (never use the phrase)

2. Nail your colours to the mast 71%

3. Colder than a witch’s tit 71%

4. Pip pip 70%

5. Know your onions 68%

6. A nod is as good as a wink 66%

7. A stitch in time saves nine 64%

8. Ready for the knackers yard 62%

9. I’ve dropped a clanger 60%

10. A fly in the ointment 59%

11. Keen as mustard 58%

12. A flash in the pan 57%

13. Tickety boo 57%

14. A load of codswallop 56%

15. A curtain twitcher 56%

16. Knickers in a twist 56%

17. Dead as a doornail 55%

18. A dog’s dinner 55%

19. It’s chock a block 55%

20. Storm in a teacup 55%

21. Could not organise a p*** up in a brewery 54%

22. Not enough room to swing a cat 54%

23. Flogging a dead horse 54%

24. Toe the line 54%

25. Popped her clogs 54%

26. Drop them a line 53%

27. Steal my thunder 53%

28. A few sandwiches short of a picnic 53%

29. A legend in one’s own lifetime 52%

30. Be there or be square 52%

31. Fell off the back of a lorry 52%

32. A bodge job 52%

33. Eat humble pie 52%

34. Having a chinwag 52%

35. Put a sock in it 52%

36. Mad as a Hatter 51%

37. Spend a penny 51%

38. Cool as a cucumber 51%

39. It’s gone pear shaped 51%

40. It cost a bomb 51%

41. Raining cats and dogs 51%

42. See a man about a dog 51%

43. It takes the biscuit 50%

44. He’s a good egg 50%

45. Snug as a bug in a rug 49%

46. Chuffed to bits 49%

47. Have a gander 49%

48. Selling like hot cakes 49%

49. Pardon my French 48%

50. A Turn up for the books 45%

Feel free to pepper posts with these sayings.

[NigelJK]

Some of those ar C.1960s so don't count. Of the real ones only 3 2 I have not used in the last year.

Pip pip.

[vetran]

Some of those ar C.1960s so don't count. Of the real ones only 3 2 I have not used in the last year.

Pip pip.

speak for yourself I was born around the sixties.

I use many of these nowadays 21 is slightly modified Its organise a social occasion in a Brewery when I say it.

Ta-ra

[d000hg]

I don't think you can say it's getting less diverse just because some sayings are dying out, as long as new ones are being added at about the same rate. PArt of the fun of English is how it changes. You feel me, innit?

[Paddy]

Colder than a witches tit

[northernladuk]

I use ALL of those from time to time. Some more than others but not one of those on the list I wouldn't use in a given situation. I also like 'Eyes like a piss hole rat' but I try not to use it because next to no one knows what it means. Even people from my generation. It's cause I've got posh friends innit.

Tried the list out on my 20 year old and he recognises some from me saying them but doesn't have a clue what most of them mean.

We did have a wonderful hour family time at dinner last night going through the list and explaining the background to them all. Didn't get to the bottom of the list and probably won't as it appears I'm eating by myself in the office tonight for some reason.

[Gibbon]

I don't think you can say it's getting less diverse just because some sayings are dying out, as long as new ones are being added at about the same rate. PArt of the fun of English is how it changes. You feel me, innit?

It certainly is. Its one of the reasons spoken 'real' English is so hard for foreigners to learn, very few of us use formal English. Some Indian Ladies on my team were bemused by some of the above. Also, there is a locality involved. My better half and I went to a cinema complex near the town I grew up in and she p*ssed herself when I called the cashier 'marra' as in marrow.

[d000hg]

I use ALL of those from time to time. Some more than others but not one of those on the list I wouldn't use in a given situation.

Same, I think though are a few I might have only ever used once - but they are fun.

I know it as "eyes like piss holes in the snow" BTW.

[northernladuk]

Same, I think though are a few I might have only ever used once - but they are fun.

I know it as "eyes like piss holes in the snow" BTW.

Never heard that and don't understand it. Eyes like a piss hole rat has two meaning to people I know. One is they are super observant because the piss holes relates to the outhouse toilets of old with no lighting so need to be able to see well. I've heard other people think it means when someone sees something they like their eyes go wide, like a rat would have to in a pitch black out house.

What does your saying mean to you?

[jamesbrown]

You feel me, innit?

You're right, things have changed since 2003 or, in the case of "innit", the 1970s.