Good grief

Dad gummit! Well he would if he didn't have teeth....... :laugh:

 

Chewing the Fat (idle gabbing)

In the old days of wooden ships and iron men, crews talked and grumbled while "chewing the fat," their daily ration of brine-toughened salt pork. Chewing the fat is a nautical expression that lost its negative overtones when it washed ashore. It has come to mean an idle, friendly conversation.

...Bob

 

Shiver My Timbers! (surprise or disbelief)

This expression alludes to a ship's striking a rock or shoal so hard that her timbers shiver. The expression was first seen in 1834 in the novel Jacob Faithful by Frederick Marryat. In 1881, Robert Louis Stevenson found it to be the perfect exclamation for the irascible Long John Silver: "So! Shiver me timbers, here's Jim Hawkins!" This stereotypical pirate expression became extremely popular with writers of sea yarns and Hollywood swashbucklers.

...Bob

 

My friends & I would occasionally celebrate "opposite day."

I specifically remember two phrases we "antonymed:"

"Good grief!" became "Evil Joy!"

...And (in honor of our old-fashioned high-school receptionist)...

"Goodness Gracious Sakes Alive!" became "Badness Ungracious Sakes Dead!"



...OK...well, I guess you had to be there...

 

Bite Someone's Head Off (scold or speak angrily)

The first expression, dating from the mid 1900s, replaced the much earlier bite someone's nose off (16th century).

...Bob

 

Preachin' to the Choir (convince someone who is already convinced)

Variant preach to the converted (mid 1800s).

...Bob

 

On the Side of the Angels (supporting the good side)

The expression was coined by Benjamin Disraeli in 1864 in a speech about Darwin's theory that man is descended from apes: Is man an ape or an angel? Now I am on the side of the angels. Before long the expression extended to broader use, specifically to the moral view.

...Bob

 

Not the Only Fish in the Sea (plenty of suitable persons)

Variant not the only pebble on the beach. Both fish and pebble refer to something available in large quantities. The fish expression has been used to comfort jilted lovers since the early 1500s. The variant using pebble was first recorded in a poem of 1896 by Henry Braistead:

If you want to win her hand
Let the maiden understand
That she's not the only pebble on the beach.​

...Bob

 

Rats from a Sinking Ship (deserters)

Sailors believed that rats had a sixth sense and that the sight of them leaving a ship in large numbers was a portent of disaster. Even Shakespeare noted the tendency:

. . . they prepared
A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd,
Nor tackle, sail, nor mast; the very rats
instinctively have quit it.​

(The Tempest, Act I, scene 2)​

There could have been something to this belief, because rats were denizens of the bilge, the nethermost region inside the ship's hull and the first place to flood when a vessel takes on water. In 1625, Francis Bacon, giving the metaphor a land base, wrote of the wisdom of rats that will be sure to leave a house somewhat before it fall. When abandoning a cause that seems doomed to failure, a person is considered to be a rat fleeing a figuratively sinking ship.

...Bob

 

"...by the skin of my teeth."

This comes from Job 19:20. The actual wording is "WITH the skin of my teeth." It generally means today a narrow escape.

Since the teeth do not have skin, what does the original saying mean?
One view is that it is the gums, and it was the only part of Job's body not afflicted with boils.

 

God hath given you one face, and you make yourselves another.

William Shakespeare
Hamlet (Act III, scene i)

...Bob

 

God, God forgive us all!

William Shakespeare
Macbeth (Act 5, scene i)

...Bob

 

I count it but time lost to hear such a foolish song.
God be wi' you; and God mend your voices!

William Shakespeare
As You Like It (Act V, scene iii)

 

Is this your Christian counsel?

William Shakespeare
King Henry VIII (Act 3, scene i)

...Bob

 

A fine volley of words.

William Shakespeare
Two Gentlemen of Verona (Act II, scene iv)

 

He words me.

William Shakespeare
Anthony and Cleopatra (Act V, scene ii)

...Bob

 

This isn't Shakespeare, but I love the Progressive Ins. commercial where the old guy uses the slang. It's okie smokie skiddly doo. There's no flibbity-flab or mumbo-jumbo there!

 

Aye Chihuahua!

Not wanting to leave out our Spanish-speaking friends. This goes well with, "Yo Quiero Taco Bell!"

 

Spoken by the judge on the tv show Boston Legal:


No poopy talk or jibber jabber!