pray tell
For demanding an answer. In my opinion, it adds a friendly layer of irony, indicating that you cannot see a possible reason for something :
And pray tell, what purpose does it serve? 🙄
Half Sisyphus, half rolling stone.
Describes self sabotaging tendencies (while showing good will and effort).
I thought you quit smoking last month – yea, half Sisyphus, half rolling stone🥲
Streets ahead.
If you have to ask, you’re streets behind.
I thought it was coined by Community initially, so when I heard it used on the Great British Bake-Off, I thought “wow, is that a Community reference?” Turns out it’s been a common saying in the UK and Ireland for ages.
Heh, it was still a good joke.
Ha ha it’s a saying my mother would use, or people of her generation, which makes it even funnier that Pierce thinks he coined it… a bit like when he thinks he “writes” the Greendale song.
Aussie here, i didn’t get the joke, i will admit. 'Cos it’s something i heard in the 1990’s
The show The Bear dropped streets ahead in the second season as well as Gillian Jacobs being added to the cast. The creator of the show Chris Storer is the long time partner of Jacobs. Joel Mchale and Dani Pudi had brief cameos as well.
Is it a good show?
I think it’s one of the best shows on tv right now.
😎
Perfect response. I was just about to type “wish I could upvote twice” when I realized I could boost!
good, that phrase should stay in reddit
Fair enough.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nonplussed
A lot of people think it means unhappy, but it really means bewildered. Confusion over the definition has led to a new use as unimpressed.
I always thought nonplussed meant unimpressed.
Similarly, “presently” originally meant “soon”, but now people use it to mean “at this time”. Like “I will be leaving presently” could mean two different things depending on who’s saying it
And “momentarily” doesn’t mean “soon” but people are starting to use it that way.
“Clear as mud?”
Normally said after I tried to explain something and I’m only getting a blank stare in response. Or after a meeting when I know everyone is confused.
Ooh, another one I just remembered, translated from Afrikaans: ‘Piggie war’.
Used to refer to a conflict where there are no winners, like pigs fighting in mud, where all participants just end up dirty, humiliated and bruised. Like replying to a troll online.
Is that kinda like “two monkeys fucking a football?”
Never heard that one, but it could be similar. I’m stealing that, by the way.
Much of a muchness.
Used to describe something redundant or superfluous. Naming a cat is much of a muchness; it won’t come when you call it anyway.
That’s not how you play cricket.
Used when someone or something is obviously bending or breaking the rules in an ungentlemanly manner. Capitalism is not how you play cricket.
“not how you play cricket”
I (native UK English speaker)'ve only ever heard it with “cricket” in an adjectival form. As in “that’s just not cricket”.
It’s very possible that I have it a bit twisted. I’m a South African, and English is my second language.
Pussy on the chainwax!
Do you ever listen to A Way with Words?
As an answer to an obvious question:
“Does the pope shit in the woods?”
The answer is yes. Yes he does.
Is the bear a catholic?
We’ll burn that bridge when we get there. It’s not rocket surgery.
“It’s not Dragon magic” is a fave of mine, semi-obscure ref for those that get it, dada for those that don’t
I am partial to ‘Does the pope systematically cover up child sexual abuse?’
I have a lot of questions about the state of sanitation in the Vatican.
Is the Pope a bear?
Getting two birds stoned at once.
An old uni friend of mine from Northern Island made up a word for that thing when you drink in the afternoon and then stop for a bit and you get really tired: “Cafaggerhaggied”
It’s sounds much better in a NI accent, though
Some slang from York, UK that was common in my childhood:
Pushknacker - a bicycle, particularly a street bike. Best one on this list, tbh, it’s a great word.
Lagin - pronounced la-jin. Means rubbish. Like, “your pushknacker is lagin!”
Weeny - really, as in “that’s weeny lagin”
Chava - pronounced char-va, a derogatory term, to be honest I never had any idea what the actual meaning was but it’s an insult, as in “ya fuckin chava!”. I was confused when the word “chav” suddenly became a thing years later and I’ve always wondered if they are related or if it’s a coincidence.
Ding - what people would now call a chav, also used ad a general insult.
Dingraff - either the full for of ding, or an extension of it, no idea. General insult.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Chava
Today I (we?) learned!
“Mallyhacked” - meaning something that is broken or destroyed. I heard this phrase a lot from older folks during my childhood, but never by anyone who wasn’t from my area. My SO didn’t believe it was a real word so I did some digging and I think that it is likely a very regionally accented version of “malahack”.
Urban Dictionary says that malahack comes from the Lumbee-English slang of southern North Carolina. I don’t think that’s quite accurate because I’m not from anywhere close to North Carolina. My preferred reference is from The Vocabulary of East-Anglia: An Attempt to Record the Vulgar Tongue of the Twin Sister Counties Norfolk and Suffolk, as it Existed in the Last Twenty Years of the Eighteenth Century, and Still Exists: with Proof of Its Antiquity from Etymology and Authority; in Two Volumes · Volume 2 by Robert Forby, 1830:
Malahack, v. A word ludicrously fabricated, which means to cut or carve in an awkward and slovenly manner.
Not a phrase but I’ve been saying the word “absolute” instead of “absolutely”. I’m a legend in my own mind.
“Gong show”
Chaotic or poorly organized
The graduation ceremony was a total gong show, even the principal was drunk
Wide awake nightmare: A terrible thing you have to live with, you can’t just wake up from it.
As in the line from the MST3k episode The Scream Skull, “This is Micky, Micky is a wide awake nightmare.”
