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Unusual expressions.

I once had a very nice boss who was from rural southern Illinois. It took a while to get him riled up, but when he did here is what he would say to the person with whom he was upset: "I'll tell YOU who ate the cabbage!" I never asked him, but I think it means that if several rabbits enter a garden, the dominant rabbit gets to eat the delicacy, in this case, the cabbage. That was his way of telling his subordinate "I'm the boss!" Now, whenever my dog barks at the neighbor's dogs, I always imagine that she's telling them who ate the cabbage.

Do you have any unique, unusual expressions or heard any that are memorable to you?

MikeEC 7 Feb 17
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34 comments (26 - 34)

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1

If it was dark in the house when my mom got home: "It's darker than a bag of assholes in here." Still makes me giggle.

That's a good one! It reminds me of another southern Illinois expression "it is colder than a well diggers ass hole."

A somewhat related expression that was common in northern Illinois in my youth and probably still is: "It is colder than a witches tit."

1

My great- grandma used to call us kids "pee-pot" when we were little and being naughty. Lol

1

Flat out drinking like a goanna at a billabong.
He's a "gunner" - gonna do this, gonna that!
You wouldn't trust him any more than a red belly black (snake - see photo on my page)
Clayton's the drink you have when you are not having drink - cordial for making soft drink from a 1980's advert gave rise to using the word "Clayton's" to mean anything that was not real eg. He's a Clayton's man to describe a mangina.
If he had a third leg we could use him for cricket stumps - meaning he's useless.
Strong as a Mallee bull.
Drier than a nun's vagina - drought ridden, thirsty.
If you continue to use those big words you won't have any left by lunch time - I don't like your verbosity.
Cutting another man's lunch - cuckolding a husband.
Bangs like a dunny door - a dunny is an outside toilet and the door is the most used door on a property. The statement refers to a person of loose morals or nymphomaniac.

Wow! That is a whole list of expressions I have never heard of. Of course, I have never visited Australia either. Would love to, but I would have to win an expense paid trip.

1

My father had another saying he would use when someone would not listen to reason. It was "You can't tell a Hienz Pickle much."

Of mixed ancestry - a Heinz 57 - referring to the old advertising that Heinz had 57 varieties.

@FrayedBear The saying is of a much later origin, there was commercial that said; "you can tell a Heinz pickle by its crunch"

@HeathenFarmer never saw that one. 🙂

@FrayedBear It was a Canadian TV commercial.

@HeathenFarmer the other side of the planet! Lol

@FrayedBear Yes it is.

@FrayedBear now this is one that is commonly heard in the USA, usually referring to the mixed breed dog as opposed to a human. ?

1

"Bless his heart." In the south, that means any variation of "what a moron."

Glad that you contributed that one. I have not thought about it for a while, but a friend of mine from Tennessee once told me her take on it. She said, "you can say anything you want to about somebody, as long as you close it out with 'bless his heart'."

1

Was stationed in Italy for a while. When I was new to the country, I met another American there who was also new, and one day when he bumped his knee hard and cursed "insalata mista!" I thought he was learning Italian swear words! Turns out he just saw it on a menu and thought it sounded like a good swear. It just means "mixed salad." Now, when I'm with a classroom of kids and I get frustrated (like the computer won't load a page, or the printer jams) I sometimes mutter "insalata mista!" I told the kids the story about it...

That has a great sound to it

1

The 101, The 405 lmao LA man, you know who you are hahahaha 😉

1

I have flying monkeys and I know how to use them!

That's beautiful. I once had a couple of coworkers who were good friends. Whenever one of them was in a noticeably bad mood, the other one would say "don't mind her, she has been that way ever since that house fell on her sister."

0

A toad is not the same as a frog, but in southern Illinois upon seeing a toad, many natives of the area will refer to it as a "toad frog." Is this common elsewhere?

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