They Say Em' From the Golden Era - Slang & Memorable Phrases

[Diamondback]

This isn't WONK, Carter, please spare those who haven't chosen to be corrupted by our wicked ways... lol

 

[Miles Borocky]

A close, longtime friend of mine and I like to lapse into our caricatured version of 1940s film-guy speak sometimes.

Some of favorite phrases--

When somebody says something piquant: "I like your style, kid. You've got moxy."

Or lampooning lascivious men of 1940s film, eyeing a comely beauty: "Whoa. Who's the tomato?"

 

[Chad Sanborn]

Stems, Pins, Gams....
All slang for womens legs. I had a friend explain that each was for a certain type of leg though.

Pins were for really skinny legs
Stems for average legs
Gams for thicker legs

Not sure if this is true or not. But somehow, GAMS does sound thicker.

 

[SnackPacKid]

My Grandma says "not worth a tinker's darn". But I think it's supposed to be "not worth a tinker's dam". But she's much too proper to say dam, even without the n.

 

[carter]

My grandmother used to say, "The hurrier I go, the behinder I get".

 

[Bill Taylor]

A couple of slang words used when I was a kid in the 1930's was:

Spang e.g. "I jumped right spang in the middle of it". Booth Tarkington also used the word in several of his novels, especially 'Penrod" and "Penrod and Sam". That would have been in the teens, so the word hung around a long time. Don't have a clue what the word meant, but it was used a lot.

Cut Up. It was used two or three ways, e.g. "she was real cut up about not getting that new dress". Or, "he is a real cut-up (meaning sort of a joker). First usage is from the teens or earlier, but still around in the 30s. I think the joker version was a lot later, maybe even 40's.

Alley Opp. Used when you strained to lift something up or such e.g. While lifting a heavy rock, you say "Alley Opp. As I remember, this was more from the 40s and it came from a popular comic strip of the time called "Alley Opp", about a cave man (sort of). Hmm, I may not have spelled it quite right, not sure.

Bill Taylor

 

[carter]

" Ain't nothin' shakin' but the leaves in the trees." Alberta Hunter

 

[Subvet642]

Check this out, how to talk like Frank Sinatra:
http://artofmanliness.com/2008/02/11/talk-like-frank-sinatra/

Or how to talk like Cab Calloway:
http://artofmanliness.com/2008/09/2...the-cab-calloway-hepster-dictionary/#more-878

 

[dit dah]

I recently happened upon, via the televisual device, the following proclamation of discontent:

“Mice and Mumps!”

It was henceforth adopted in place of the “F*** that S***” that had somehow ingratiated itself into my everyday lexicon. It has it’s uses that picture box.

 

[MikeBravo]

my favorite this week: criminitly. [huh]

Yes it's a most cromulent word*

My fave expression telling someone to get lost is "Ahhh, take a powder"

A close second is "Beat it, Kid"



* from an episode of the Simpsons. Miss Crabapple (sp?) is amazed at all the made-up words she has heard since moving to Springfield. Another teacher replies. "Yes, it's a most cromulent word."

 

[MikeBravo]

I've also heard Glad to know you. Both of these seem like things I'd want to hear.
Has anyone mentioned Go soak your head! for times when we're not feeling so neighborly?

I've heard the expression "Glad to know ya" in a movie from 1937 and one from 1947, so it must have been used for at least a 10 year period. I don't remember the names, the one from '37 was about a mine where the hero worked with explosives.

I use it myself, actually

 

[I'mSuzyParker]

In a lot of the movies of the '40s, they would say someone was in the "hot seat".

 

[Miss 1929]

Yes it's a most cromulent word*

My fave expression telling someone to get lost is "Ahhh, take a powder"

A close second is "Beat it, Kid"



* from an episode of the Simpsons. Miss Crabapple (sp?) is amazed at all the made-up words she has heard since moving to Springfield. Another teacher replies. "Yes, it's a most cromulent word."

that would be Edna Kerbapple.

 

[ShrinkingViolet]

Alley Opp. Used when you strained to lift something up or such e.g. While lifting a heavy rock, you say "Alley Opp. As I remember, this was more from the 40s and it came from a popular comic strip of the time called "Alley Opp", about a cave man (sort of). Hmm, I may not have spelled it quite right, not sure.

Bill Taylor

In French, "Allez hop!" means something like "get up!" or "let's go!".

 

[Laura Chase]

In Danish the word backfish was used as slang for a teenager. Was this word used in English as well?

 

[tuppence]

It's just not cricket

I remember the Marx Brothers using that term, Blacklagoon:

Secretary: "The dean is tired of cooling his heels in the hall."
Groucho: "Tell him I'm cooling a couple heels in here."

Chamorro. How about "Cricket"?

I have a book of Dan DeCarlo's cartoons, which on one page has a near-naked girl asking a guy out of frame, "But is it cricket to play poker with a pinochle deck, Mr. Bitterman?!" Her hand has five kings, his has five aces.


Lee

Cricket would come from the English saying "It's just not cricket" I'm assuming it comes from the English Gentlemans' game Cricket and means not playing by the rules.

 

[tuppence]

When I was a kid we moved from Sunny Melbourne, Australia to Boston, US(of)A. Within my first few weeks of school a another kid brought in something extraordinary to show the teacher. Like a good little Australian I exclaimed "What the bloody hell is that?!". At which point I got a dressing down for swearing. Both "bloody" and "hell" are pretty vintage and inoffensive expletives in Australia and I'm unsure to this day which word was more offensive to my bean-town listeners. I think it was bloody but its really common here so I've never been sure.

example:

During WW1 in 1917 the Germans retreated to the Hindenburg line leaving the city of Bapaume behind which was then investigated by an Australian patrol. The officer in charge returned to his CO and reported..

Office: "They've hopped the bloody twig. They're out of it."
CO: "Who? The Boche? Out of Bapaume?"
Officer: "Yes. The bloody place is empty."
CO: "Your a bloody liar."
Officer: "Bloody liar be damned. You give me the bloody battalion and I'll take the bloody place right now!"

He did... and he did.

So could a friendly yank set me at ease so I can finally die a happy man

Your parents must have been very liberal in comparison to mine.
Saying bloody would incur a punishment.
So we use to utilise the opportunity of some-one bleeding to say the word as often as we could.
According to my YR 8 english teacher it is the shortening of a blaspheme "By Our Lady"

 

[byronic]

Doolally - meaning "crazy". My mother still uses that one...

This is apparently how it originated, in about 1944 in India:



I found it when I was hunting out info on Dubbin for MudInYerEye...

I read a slightly different version of this in Richard Holmes' study of the British army in WW1 'Tommy'. He claims that 'to go doolally' comes from the name of a British army hospital that was located in a place called Deoali- I may have the spelling wrong!- which was in India. If soldiers contracted a fever they were said to 'have the Deoali Tap', 'Tap' being the Hindi word for fever. So if a soldier became feverish and started raving, he was 'gone doolally', (meaning gone to the infirmary, or gone crazy.) This is also why we say someone who is a bit unstable is 'Tapped'. The word was probably in common use in the 19th century, amongst 'old sweats' in the Indian army anyway, but then they had a lingo that was unique to them.
My mother also uses the word 'doolally' on a regular basis, and not always when referring to me lol

 

[dolly]

My grandpa used to tell me to stop 'roughhousin' when i was a little kid all the time. haha

 

[Godfrey]

Your parents must have been very liberal in comparison to mine.
Saying bloody would incur a punishment.
So we use to utilise the opportunity of some-one bleeding to say the word as often as we could.
According to my YR 8 english teacher it is the shortening of a blaspheme "By Our Lady"

Probably so - didn't feel like it at the time as there were a number of "off-limit" words that don't seem so problematic these days. As a lad I once helped my grandfather shear some sheep and still haven't used up the store of expletives I learnt that day! His everyday expletive was "blast" one I use these days as its pretty inoffensive.

It was interesting that in the US the "B" word was totally out of bounds.