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What sayings do you actually use or hear spoken?

Started by Retinend, June 16, 2020, 08:22:24 PM

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Retinend

From my dying thread in Shelf-Abuse:

Quote from: Retinend on June 08, 2020, 10:32:04 AM

https://imgur.com/a/bczU09S

Been reading this one and it got me into a weird sort of small-c conservative daydream. Sayings are good, aren't they? You just say them and there's no answering them. They link you to a strange tradition that you didn't knowingly study, but are an expert at. Non-natives would struggle to guess the ending to these, some of my personal favourites:

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.
Actions speak louder than words.
Clutching at straws.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
All that glitters is not gold.
All's fair in love and war.
An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
A picture is worth a thousand words. (love this one)
Beggars can't be choosers.
Best things in life are free.
Better to burn out than to fade away
Blow your own trumpet.

love 'em. Which do you use often and which are good/bad/underrated etc?

bonus: I got my fiancée (native German speaker) to play the guessing game and here's the transcript

QuoteHey du, F., guess the endings of the sayings: "a bad workman always blames ...?"

the builder?

Wrong. His tools.

Aah.

A bird in hand is worth ...

Two in this bush.

Two in the bush. Absence makes the heart ...

grow fonder.

Correct. A chain is only as strong as

the metal

Actions speak

louder than words.

Clutching at

like a clutch bag?

A fool and his money

will soon part.

A leopard doesn't

change colour.

All's well that

is.

All that glitters

is money

All's fair in

fair play.

An apple a day

keeps the doctor away.

A picture is worth

a thousand words.

Beggars can't

buy wisdom?

Best things in life

happen only once.

Better late than

sorry.

Better to burn out than

to burn down.

blow your own

nose


canadagoose


Zetetic


Sebastian Cobb

I've definitely used the phrase 'you can only shit with the arse you've got', not very often, but I've definitely used it.

beanheadmcginty

My first boss taught me the phrase "If you can hear 'em there ain't much wrong with 'em", which he (and now I) deploy after doing a particularly loud fart.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

I live in Yorkshire so any man over 60 can't seem to finish a sentence without deploying some maxim or other.

pancreas

A 'fun' game is to try to match these up with things that mean the exact opposite.

Never look a gift horse in the mount
vs
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

Best things in life are free
vs
No such thing as a free lunch

etc.

Shoulders?-Stomach!

Quote from: pancreas on June 16, 2020, 10:36:09 PM
A 'fun' game is to try to match these up with things that mean the exact opposite.

Never look a gift horse in the mount
vs
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts

Best things in life are free
vs
No such thing as a free lunch

etc.

I imagine 'games' like this are why middle aged couples quickly move on to extreme sexual fetishes and adultery.

Twit 2

Some of my favourite Cioran aphorisms are the ones where he's talking to someone on the street, they come out with some kind of idiom/saying which initially repels or insults him with its banality, only to realise that they've accidentally struck on some profound wisdom, thus making them the wiser one and him the fool. Hard to explain, may find some examples if I can be arsed.

Btw, Retinend, get this dual language bad-boy immediately:


Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: beanheadmcginty on June 16, 2020, 10:16:58 PM
My first boss taught me the phrase "If you can hear 'em there ain't much wrong with 'em", which he (and now I) deploy after doing a particularly loud fart.

Shame the p.a. repairs business went under though!

touchingcloth


gib

Quote from: Shoulders?-Stomach! on June 16, 2020, 10:48:39 PM
I imagine 'games' like this are why middle aged couples quickly move on to extreme sexual fetishes and adultery.

well on the one hand 'Familiarity breeds contempt' but yet one has to weigh this against 'The grass is always greener on the other side'

paruses

Better late than Late.

- my old headmaster addressing the school following a pupil being run over whilst rushing to cross the busy road outside the school.

Twit 2

Quote from: Twit 2 on June 17, 2020, 12:05:11 AM
Some of my favourite Cioran aphorisms are the ones where he's talking to someone on the street, they come out with some kind of idiom/saying which initially repels or insults him with its banality, only to realise that they've accidentally struck on some profound wisdom, thus making them the wiser one and him the fool. Hard to explain, may find some examples if I can be arsed.

QuoteAn ancient cleaning woman, in answer to my "How's everything going?" answers without looking up: "Taking its course." This ultrabanal answer nearly brings me to tears. The more such turns of speech, which deal with becoming, with the passage of time, with the course of things, are worn down, the more likely they are to acquire the quality of a revelation. But the truth is not that they create an exceptional state, only that you yourself were in that state without realizing it, and that it required only a sign or a pretext for the extraordinary to occur.

QDRPHNC


Brian Freeze

"Let the dog see the rabbit" -  mostly associated with nappy changing for us.

seepage


popcorn

At an old job I coined the phrase "The harder to do, the better to do" when I needed to get the engineers to do what I wanted. On reflection it never worked.

My mother comes out with some mysterious ones, such as "Well, she's no better than she should be" when she sees a woman she finds unimpressive.




earl_sleek


Marner and Me

When having a meeting so that instead of everyone singing off the same song sheet, we're all spunking up the same choir boy.

flotemysost

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on June 16, 2020, 09:47:38 PM
I've definitely used the phrase 'you can only shit with the arse you've got', not very often, but I've definitely used it.

That's a good one.

I always wondered how 'If you ain't shitting, get off the pot' came about - I know what it means, but what situation is it referring to? Some sort of communal toilet which can also be used just for having a leisurely sit down, but those who do so are inconveniencing anyone who actually needs to shit? Did the Romans sometimes visit the bogs just to have a chat with their neighbour, while a desperate queue formed behind them?

Quote from: touchingcloth on June 17, 2020, 12:18:57 AM
I shit in the milk.

Another good one, even more evocative when it specifies that it's your mum's tit milk.

Retinend

Quote from: flotemysost on June 19, 2020, 03:12:49 PMI always wondered how 'If you ain't shitting, get off the pot' came about  Did the Romans sometimes visit the bogs just to have a chat with their neighbour, while a desperate queue formed behind them?

Close: This one traces back to Roman emperor Nero, in one of his stroppier moments.

earl_sleek

When things go wrong I often find myself saying "Shit on my arse". My favourite is the one a friend came up with years ago: "FUCK THE LORD".

Ferris

Quote from: gib on June 17, 2020, 12:45:02 AM
well on the one hand 'Familiarity breeds contempt' but yet one has to weigh this against 'The grass is always greener on the other side'

Many hands make light work vs too many cooks


magval

A lad I work with claims his dad came up with "if you act the cunt, you'll get fucked" which is brilliantly vulgar, clever linguistically, and carries a sort of warning logic to it that the best sayings do.