General Chat

Chesterfield is used here for a certain type of sofa, although OH and ! have never used it.

As Brenda said, the back is usually level with the arms, back is has deeply embedded buttoning, arms are rolled to the outside, and they are usually leather although modern ones are now more commonly fabric covered.

Some people however use chesterfield for any kind of sofa as that is the word their parents used .............. in other words, it has become an acceptable word for any style of 3 person seating.

We use settee or sofa, depending on which word comes to mind first, using the alternative if our listener seems bemused by the first name we use! That doesn't matter what size it is .......... we have a 4-seater settee and a 2 seater. Some people call the 2-seater a love seat.

OH and I have a couple of 2 seater settees (or sofas) that fold out to form a bed, and we always use the word hide-a-bed for those. Other friends say a "love seat that is a hide-a-bed".

This is an interesting site, showing the different styles of chesterfields available in N America.

I was interested in the comment in one description that chesterfields are not noted for being very comfortable as the back is vertical.

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/10-charming-chesterfield-sofas-177886

My OH uses the term "I could murder a cup of tea" (probably should be "murder FOR a cup).

"Wait a bit".

Some years back we had a young lady from the New York office working on attachment in London.

On her first week she was about to go to a customer meeting with the manager she had been assigned to.

Just as they were about to leave he said he needed to pick up a rubber from his desk. For a few seconds she was frozen to the spot in shock until he returned with an eraser in his hand.

Fred was once telling me about a pub out in the wilds of West Sussex that would cook up a stew once a week and call it 'shackle'. He said it was nothing special but the locals flocked in for some on 'Shackle Night'.

Although I had never heard stew called shackle it made me understand how a word I had wondered about came about.

I would imagine that the old breeding ram of a flock would be kept tupping, producing his good lambs for as long as possible and that would have made him a bit tough, poor chap.

When he had tupped his last he would not be wasted but his meat would probably need hacking apart a bit and it would also need a pretty good simmer to soften it up so it would not be too pretty to look at.

I bet it would be made into something that was a bit, well, ramshackle.

Giddy Aunt.

Mother's Ruin.

Tosspot.

Sneck Lifter.

Shot-Clog.

"up t'ginnel and rahnd t'back"

my instructions from a woman on how to find her neighbour when I was delivering Christmas post in Oldham


"ginnel" was a passageway between 2 terraced houses, often with an archway over it.

It led through to the back of the houses, and into a yard where there were other small houses built onto the back of the ones that faced the street.

hence an address would be ..........

Number 4
5 Yard
xxxxxx Street

Fur coat and no knickers ;-)

Sylvia, we used to call the back alley 'the back entry'.

For a long time I thought the Beatles song read 'thank you very much for the entry iron' because the rag-and-bone man (as he was called) used to walk down the back entry touting for tat, including old iron things, shouting 'Entry iron,'

'Thank you very much for the entry iron' seems exactly as I recall his thanks.

'Thank you very much for the Aintree iron' never rings true to me.

Ah'm reet clemmed or, more poshly, I'm really clemmed

Treading the boards....or the light fantastic.

Going to bed up the dancers.

If you had a little accident and hurt yourself...'my gran used to say ..oh it's alright,it'll ba a pigs foot in the morning...where that came from I don't know!!

Det. my gran used to say 'Red shoes no Knickers'.

Fur coat no knickers was another one !

Maggie,

Snap. My post on 12 October at 6.42 - up the dancers! My Gran's expression too - and I still say it. :-D

Red shoes, no knickers is a new one cos we always use the 'fur coat, no knickers' expression.

Red shoes ... That's me done for then. I love colourful shoes and I still have three pairs that I still wear.

Sorry JL it was me not remembering about the dancers that you posted....memory going!

Yesterday,I paid for groceries in supermarket with my card.then went for petrol and put wrong number in...mind you I have my 32 yr old granddaughter staying with me at the moment and stayed up a lot later than normal and out of routine......that's my excuse!

Yes, Brenda, sorry. :-D

Memory lapse.

Now where the heck did I put me red shoes. :-D

I need to put them on so I can trip the light fantastic. :-0

Well would you Adam and Eve it !!!

Rhyming slang used in Sarf East Lunnon

And now for one I love: many a mickle makes a muckle.

:-D

My father used to call all politicians "mugwumps"

He said that was a bird that sits on the fence with its mug on one side and wump on the other



although I see from Google that it originated in the US as a First Nations word for a war leader, but became well known after it was used for republicans who didn't support their candidate in the 1884 contest :-D :-D