Old sayings that younger folk won't get any longer

[Zetterlund]

7 hours ago, IrishBhoy said:

Usually in relation to a workplace, ‘this place couldnae run a minodge’. My tradesman used to utter those words every day to me when I was an apprentice. I don’t think anyone under 25 would know what a minodge is now. 
 

My mum used to have a few wee sayings that I’ve not heard anyone say in years. If she suspected someone of lying she would say ‘aye yer chookie birdy’. Im not sure why tbh maybe some of the older posters on here know it’s origin, but I knew what it meant when she said it. 

Under 25 and east of Coatbridge maybe. I'm 43 and have never heard of a minodge - a quick google suggests it's a Glasgow thing.

[The Mantis]

34 minutes ago, IrishBhoy said:

Quite interesting. I’m sure if you done enough digging in to that you could trace back the origins of the word. I suppose Spain and France are both countries which use the Latin alphabet so it’s maybe not that far of a stretch, but there must be something for it to differ so much from the English word. 

There's quite a few links with France going back to the Auld Alliance, like in a chippie in the WOS you would get an ashet pie supper, a steak pie in a foil tray. Just like the French assiete. Also Burns writing about a silver tassie, like the French tass meaning a cup. I was told a few more at school but cannae remember them now.

But there's just as many Scots words linked to Scandinavian words from the days of the Hanseatic traders. Like bigging a house or the word 'ken' meaning to know. People in the west laugh at us east coasters for using it but it's a word with a real history/etymology/whatever. Scots have always been Europeans. More reasons to hate all these brexity c***s.
 

Edited January 15, 2023 by The Mantis

[IrishBhoy]

12 minutes ago, Zetterlund said:

Under 25 and east of Coatbridge maybe. I'm 43 and have never heard of a minodge - a quick google suggests it's a Glasgow thing.

I knew it started in Glasgow but I assumed it was known across Scotland, obviously not. I’m sure other parts of Scotland had similar schemes although not called a minodge.
 

I think there’s still things like it running even these days. I’ve heard of people paying in to a ‘christmas club’, where they put £100 or so away each month and get it back in time for buying Christmas presents. 

[Florentine_Pogen]

3 hours ago, IrishBhoy said:

You’ve also just reminded me that my mum and her sisters used to call spring onions ‘cybees’ and it’s been years since I’ve heard that word used. It popped into my head a few months back and I asked a couple of guys in work who are a similar age to me if they had ever heard them called that, and they looked at me like I was speaking Chinese. Pretty sure it was common to hear them called cybees in Scotland in years gone by but definitely not so much these days. 

My mother (90 y.o.) has always, and still does, refer to spring onions as 'syboes'.....however, my Yankee wife refers to them as 'scallions'.  I just call them 'those wee feckin' ingins'.......

[IrishBhoy]

9 minutes ago, The Mantis said:

There's quite a few links with France going back to the Auld Alliance, like in a chippie in the WOS you would get an ashet pie supper, a steak pie in a foil tray. Just like the French assiete. Also Burns writing about a silver tassie, like the French tass meaning a cup. I was told a few more at school but cannae remember them now.

But there's just as many Scots words linked to Scandinavian words from the days of the Hanseatic traders. Like bigging a house or the word 'ken' meaning to know. People in the west laugh at us east coasters for using it but it's a word with a real history/etymology/whatever. Scots have always been Europeans. More reasons to hate all these brexity c***s.
 

The German word for know is ‘kennen’ so there’s an obvious relation there with the Scots ‘ken’, and church translated into German is ‘kirche’. I’m sure if you dig deeper you would find a lot more. 
 

Also it seems to be just Glasgow and it’s surroundings that don’t use ‘ken’, rather than it being an east coast thing. Just guessing here but could that possibly be down to Glasgow having a higher influx of Irish immigrants, and the east coast and lowlands having more people settling from Scandinavia and the Germanic regions? 

[Florentine_Pogen]

6 minutes ago, IrishBhoy said:

The German word for know is ‘kennen’ so there’s an obvious relation there with the Scots ‘ken’, and church translated into German is ‘kirche’. I’m sure if you dig deeper you would find a lot more. 
 

Also it seems to be just Glasgow and it’s surroundings that don’t use ‘ken’, rather than it being an east coast thing. Just guessing here but could that possibly be down to Glasgow having a higher influx of Irish immigrants, and the east coast and lowlands having more people settling from Scandinavia and the Germanic regions? 

With regard to dribbly nose mucus, Scots say 'snotters' and some Swiss / German regions say 'schnotters'.

[The Mantis]

4 minutes ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

With regard to dribbly nose mucus, Scots say 'snotters' and some Swiss / German regions say 'schnotters'.

I remember when the Proclaimers hit was getting questioned across the pond because they didn't know the meaning of 'haver' and thought it might be some sexual perversion or drug reference. Plus we Scots always got a laugh at the English Barrister Sir Michael Havers 

[Florentine_Pogen]

2 minutes ago, The Mantis said:

I remember when the Proclaimers hit was getting questioned across the pond because they didn't know the meaning of 'haver' and thought it might be some sexual perversion or drug reference. Plus we Scots always got a laugh at the English Barrister Sir Michael Havers 

A lot of Yanks definately have a 'thing' for Scots colloquialisms, especially those who think they have Scots or Irish ancestry and have never set foot outside 'Murca. When I started visiting the US almost 30 years ago, there was a very popular film called 'So I Married An Axe Murderer' with Mike Myers playing a Scottish grandad whose catchphrase was "If it's not Scottish, it's crap !", said in a very heavy dialect.

I very quickly got sick fed up of my wife's family, especially the neices & nephews, demanding that I parrot this phrase every 5 minutes. It was a similar story when 'Shrek' was released....."That'll do Donkey, that'll do"......Mike Myers has a lot to answer for.................................

[Sergeant Wilson]

47 minutes ago, IrishBhoy said:

I knew it started in Glasgow but I assumed it was known across Scotland, obviously not. I’m sure other parts of Scotland had similar schemes although not called a minodge.
 

I think there’s still things like it running even these days. I’ve heard of people paying in to a ‘christmas club’, where they put £100 or so away each month and get it back in time for buying Christmas presents. 

It's a menage, French. A group collecting and distibuting money on an informal basis.

Minodge is a variation on that.

" That boot has stolen the fucking minodge money."

[IrishBhoy]

17 minutes ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

With regard to dribbly nose mucus, Scots say 'snotters' and some Swiss / German regions say 'schnotters'.

I enjoy finding out this kind of stuff. The way languages, and even accents, have been influenced by migration throughout history is something I find interesting. You can see how the Irish who settled in Liverpool have affected that dialect, and also how the Scots who immigrated to Ulster have influenced their language even to this day. The north east coast and places like the Shetlands have language with obvious roots in Scandinavia too. It’s fascinating how language evolves with so many different factors playing their part over a long period of time. 

[IrishBhoy]

11 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

" That boot has stolen the fucking minodge money."

I was going to say that earlier, I wonder how many times the wifey in charge of collecting the money done a runner with it. 
 

Something is telling me that it worked by having only one person getting the money each week, and it was taken in turns until it got back to the start. So if 20 women put in £10 each, one of them has £200 to spend that week. That woman then goes to the back of the queue and someone else gets £200 the next week, and so on until they’ve all had a turn. I suppose that would make it less likely that the money would be stolen too. 

[Sergeant Wilson]

5 minutes ago, IrishBhoy said:

I was going to say that earlier, I wonder how many times the wifey in charge of collecting the money done a runner with it. 
 

Something is telling me that it worked by having only one person getting the money each week, and it was taken in turns until it got back to the start. So if 20 women put in £10 each, one of them has £200 to spend that week. That woman then goes to the back of the queue and someone else gets £200 the next week, and so on until they’ve all had a turn. I suppose that would make it less likely that the money would be stolen too. 

Aye, theoretically, in most the weekly contributions were handed out in turns. There was less scope for theft, although the main collector could spend it out of turn.

If they had a saving element, you could steal that.

I've never heard of one that didn't disintegrate and end in fights.

[IrishBhoy]

1 hour ago, Florentine_Pogen said:

A lot of Yanks definately have a 'thing' for Scots colloquialisms, especially those who think they have Scots or Irish ancestry and have never set foot outside 'Murca. 

 

I’m sure there’s some website over there that just charges Americans to tell them they have Scottish and Irish ancestry even when they don’t. I’ve been to Philadelphia and New York and genuinely 90% of the waiters, hotel staff, taxi drivers etc. will excitedly start rhyming off family names and clans and naming towns in Scotland and Ireland. They think it’s still some mythical land filled with castles and palaces. It’s probably just as well most of them don’t bother coming over. What a shock they would get landing at Glasgow Airport and getting the train in to the city from Paisley Gilmour Street. 

[Sergeant Wilson]

4 minutes ago, IrishBhoy said:

I’m sure there’s some website over there that just charges Americans to tell them they have Scottish and Irish ancestry even when they don’t. I’ve been to Philadelphia and New York and genuinely 90% of the waiters, hotel staff, taxi drivers etc. will excitedly start rhyming off family names and clans and naming towns in Scotland and Ireland. They think it’s still some mythical land filled with castles and palaces. It’s probably just as well most of them don’t bother coming over. What a shock they would get landing at Glasgow Airport and getting the train in to the city from Paisley Gilmour Street. 

Ha! They could land at Edinburgh and go via Airdrie, Coatbridge and Shettleston etc.

[mathematics]

5 hours ago, IrishBhoy said:

You’ve also just reminded me that my mum and her sisters used to call spring onions ‘cybees’ and it’s been years since I’ve heard that word used. It popped into my head a few months back and I asked a couple of guys in work who are a similar age to me if they had ever heard them called that, and they looked at me like I was speaking Chinese. Pretty sure it was common to hear them called cybees in Scotland in years gone by but definitely not so much these days. 

I’d never heard of the word until I’d met Mrs Mathematics. I’m not allowed to use the term spring onion now.

[IrishBhoy]

3 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

Ha! They could land at Edinburgh and go via Airdrie, Coatbridge and Shettleston etc.

I’ve always found that side of the M8 to be the more scenic tbf. 

[Florentine_Pogen]

1 minute ago, mathematics said:

I’d never heard of the word until I’d met Mrs Mathematics. I’m not allowed to use the term spring onion now.

sybo

(redirected from syboe)

sybo

(ˈsəɪbɪ; ˈsaɪ-; -bo) ,

syboe

or

sybow

n, pl syboes or sybows

(Cookery) Scot a spring onion

[C16: from cibol, from French ciboule, from Latin cepulla onion bed, from cepa onion]

[Sergeant Wilson]

2 minutes ago, IrishBhoy said:

I’ve always found that side of the M8 to be the more scenic tbf. 

As you pass Hillend Reservoir on a nice day and there's boats out, it looks idyllic. 5 minutes later you're in Hades.

[Florentine_Pogen]

2 minutes ago, Sergeant Wilson said:

As you pass Hillend Reservoir on a nice day and there's boats out, it looks idyllic. 5 minutes later you're in Hades.

When did Caldercruix change it's name ?

[jimbaxters]

1 hour ago, IrishBhoy said:

I enjoy finding out this kind of stuff. The way languages, and even accents, have been influenced by migration throughout history is something I find interesting. You can see how the Irish who settled in Liverpool have affected that dialect, and also how the Scots who immigrated to Ulster have influenced their language even to this day. The north east coast and places like the Shetlands have language with obvious roots in Scandinavia too. It’s fascinating how language evolves with so many different factors playing their part over a long period of time. 

^^^