Phrases/words that you love

[teamsaint]

- GENIUS!!!

makes you look forward to the next lift journey.

[Nick Armstrong]

Many families also have catch phrases that recall some amusing, embarrassing or mythical event that the members enjoy repeating, and I think they also represent some common point of reference. 'Do you remember the time when Dad...' may become abbreviated to the punch line of the story, and everyone know what is being referred to.

This might be a bit sociological, but I'm guessing some of the words and phrases posted in this thread might well have origins in fondly remembered events.

True... but they can have a "You had to be there" personal relevance and not interesting to others... In our family, in that category is the phrase "Our cat and another". It stems from a morning when a screech from my Granny rent the air somewhere in the house and she shouted "There's hundreds of cats in the garden!"... We arrived in the room, and saw an empty garden. At first, she maintained that the garden had been "full of cats"... but under repeated interrogation admitted that there had only been "our cat and another"...

The phrase is always used when anyone exaggerates anything. We enjoy it....

[Serial_Apologist]

makes you look forward to the next lift journey.

But make sure not to get yourself accidentally forked.

[kernelbogey]

[....] "our cat and another"... The phrase is always used when anyone exaggerates anything. We enjoy it....

Good example, Calibs. I think the 'privacy' of the meaning of such phrases is part of their point - a bonding.

[AmpH]

Harrumph - a noise captured in letters.

[Pabmusic]

Harrumph - a noise captured in letters.

Wonderful! Even better as harrumphing.

[Roslynmuse]

Wonderful! Even better as harrumphing.

I had a sudden flashback to Anthony Buckeridge's 'Jennings' books - one of the masters used to do a great deal of 'harrumphing', I seem to remember.

Innocent books, probably too innocent for these times, but full of gems like the village stores that doubled as a bakery and garage: 'Homemade cakes and bicycles repaired'

[Stillhomewardbound]

Harrumph, indeed! It was so much a fixture of my childhood comics and always struck me as hopelessly anachronistic except that now I seem to have grown into and become the very phrase.

He: 'Say, let's got to Starbucks!' Me: Harrumph!

He: 'Big Mac and fries, yeah!' Me: Harrumph!

He: 'Let's watch Strictly-XFactor-GotTalent-CumTwiceNightly-StillGotNoTalent!" Me: harrumph!

Yes, I've certainly grown into that phrase.

[kernelbogey]

I had a sudden flashback to Anthony Buckeridge's 'Jennings' books - one of the masters used to do a great deal of 'harrumphing', I seem to remember.

And Richmal Cromton's William coined nom de typewriter, which I love and occasionally use.

[What is 'kernelbogey' et al - a nom de net?]

[Pabmusic]

And Richmal Cromton's William coined nom de typewriter, which I love and occasionally use.

[What is 'kernelbogey' et al - a nom de net?]

Do you mean that Kernelbogey isn't your real name?

[kernelbogey]

Do you mean that Kernelbogey isn't your real name?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

[What is 'kernelbogey' et al - a nom de net?]

Could be - or nom de web?

[Roslynmuse]

And Richmal Cromton's William coined nom de typewriter, which I love and occasionally use.

I have just dug out a 'William' book and chuckled at some lovely descriptions and observations - here, she is describing a lecture on Roman relics being given by a short-sighted Professor engaged on a local archaeological dig; unfortunately his genuine relics have been accidentally replaced by William's version (eg old sardine can in place of Roman pottery, a large and rusty toasting fork instead of a brooch):

These statements were received with ironical cheers by some of the audience, but the Professor was on the staff of one of our great Universities, and was quite accustomed to his statements being received with ironical cheers.

And that was written in 1927!

I liked this too - it may even strike a chord here

Only the honest seekers after culture were following the Professor's speech with earnest attention and seeing in Ginger's kitchen's toasting fork that strange beauty that they tried so conscientiously to see in things they ought to see it in. They knew that to be really cultured you had to make yourself see beauty in things that you knew in your heart to be ugly. Their only consolation for the effort this entailed was their feeling of superiority over the common herd that it left behind...

[Nick Armstrong]

Perfect, Rossy!!!

[kernelbogey]

[...] the Professor was on the staff of one of our great Universities, and was quite accustomed to his statements being received with ironical cheers.[/I][...]

Drifting only slightly off thread, there is a story of a linguistics prof telling his lecture audience that while many languages have instances of double negatives, there was no known instance in any language of a double positive.

A voice from the back: 'Yeah, right.'