words your grandparents used (meaning, British, money, quote)
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Sorry, I wasn't able to read all of the responses, but this is a fun thread and I'd like to share my own.
qu**r meant odd - it had absolutely nothing to do with one's sexuality.
Nubie (sp?) was a folded handkerchief worn in a triangle on your head and tied in back.
Dirty pot licker was what you called someone who wronged you.
Watch your P's & Q's. I had heard it meant watch your pints and quarts (as how much you were drinking) but my Grandma used it more along the lines of be very careful with what you're saying or doing.
pints and quarts (as how much you were drinking) but my Grandma used it more along the lines of be very careful with what you're saying or doing.
I've heard that, too, but when I was a child and I heard someone say that, I always thought it referred to a p and a q, which are mirror image letters and easy for a child to confuse.
I contributed heavily to this thread in its earlier incarnation because my granny was born in 1879 so she had lots of words in her vocabulary that are no longer used. One word I do remember her using--and it's as common today as it was then--is the word "s-l-u-t". This one has never disappeared----unlike "trollop" and maybe a few other words that describe a loose woman.
qu eer = sour, as in "The milk's turned qu eer." (The CD PC police seem to have a problem with this word)
Good Godfrey! as an expletive.
shift = nightgown
kimono = bathrobe
On the other hand, my grandmother was picked up with a bunch of kids who were drag racing in the 1950's, and the police were quite embarrassed when they had to call the aunt she was styaing with....they felt they couldn't just take the kids and leave her stranded. Another aunt, considerably higher on the social scale, saw nothing funny about it and was furious at her sister. It was her sister's kids my grandmother was with when the cops carted them off. So it is possible that terms like "hot rod" and "floor it!" were also in her vocabulary too.
If your friends jumped off a bridge would you too....
Gross was a term used that really set them off and their reply would be 144 [the number of one gross or twelve dozen].We tired of hearing 144 so disgusting was used in its place.
Sorry, I wasn't able to read all of the responses, but this is a fun thread and I'd like to share my own.
qu**r meant odd - it had absolutely nothing to do with one's sexuality.
Nubie (sp?) was a folded handkerchief worn in a triangle on your head and tied in back.
Dirty pot licker was what you called someone who wronged you.
Watch your P's & Q's. I had heard it meant watch your pints and quarts (as how much you were drinking) but my Grandma used it more along the lines of be very careful with what you're saying or doing.
It also had to do with the old qwerty typewriters, p's and q's looked similar.
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