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Idioms and Sayings - a community thread to share to bring joy and laughter

P0w3rPlut0

I enjoy dipping into and out of chats on here, but even so find many overwhelming.  I saw a thread about idioms and sayings, but now can not find it again, so instead, maybe we can start a proper thread about these things; as its often cited that due to autistic "black and white" thinking we do not understand things like "pull your socks up"................................maybe that is why I have always been fascinated with language and cherish the book given to me by my Swedish Girlfriend.

A word in your shell-like

Unravel the meaning, origin, and usage of over 6,000 phrases from book and film titles, idioms and cliches, to nicknames, slogans and quotations with this modern and entertaining guide to wonderful phrases by one of the world's best-known wordsmiths. The ideal replacement or complement to that tatty old copy of Brewer's Phrase and Fable most of us have about the house, A Word in Your Shell-Like is an entertaining look at both familiar and unfamiliar phrases by one of the key world authorities in English language reference. The articles also contain discussion of meaning, origin and usage. Who was originally 'sold down the river'? Have you been told to 'Naff off'? Find out of whom it was said 'he couldn't chew gum and fart at the same time', who the 'catcher in the rye' was, and what it means to be 'caught between wind and water'. Few other word reference books are likely to increase your store of knowledge with such fun.

Publisher information

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
ISBN: 9780007220878
Dimensions: 197 x 130 x 53 mm
Weight: 720 g

Parents

  • I have always liked "So there I was, standing there like Tiffy on a rock bun" Actually, it should be Piffy but I mis-heard. It means a person being sidelined or left in the cold. I have only just this second and after many years, realised the connection to being autistic. 

  • in reply to Oscar

    oh fantastic an idiom I didn't know, trusty book has it Page 420 (to sit) like Piffy As when a person is left in an isolated, useless position, for some time and asks why am I sat here like Piffy.  British North Country usage.  Sitting like Piffy on a rock bun, remembered from the 1930's.  In the days before theme parks and garden centres when it was quite usual to go and sit and have a picnic at the graveyard, a child in one party fell over and was comforted with these words "sit on your grandpas grave and have a rock bun" .  It is mocking comfort, especially if someone has a misfortunate after a slight mishap. It has also been suggested that Piffy was a type of icing dolloped on a rock bun, but only in small amounts. 

    Thank you Oscar. 

  • in reply to P0w3rPlut0

    Wow, thanks for all that. I like the dolloped icing theory. Actually I like the graveyard one too!

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