Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

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

Dixon Cannon

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,157
Location
Sonoran Desert Hideaway
Met an old photographer once. Talking about fast films and large aperatures, he quipped, "like shootin' a black cat in a coal mine at midnight!"

So... I've never tried to! :rolleyes:

-dixon cannon
 

TailendCharlie

One of the Regulars
Messages
110
Location
DETROIT
My mother would use these;YOU BETTER COOL YOUR JETS MISTER!
WHAT IN THE SAM HILL IS ALL THAT RACKET!
WAIT UNTIL YOUR FATHER GETS HOME!
 

woodyinnyc

One of the Regulars
Messages
157
Location
NYC
dhermann1 said:
My grandmother used to say "That and a nickel will get you a cup of coffee", in response to any statement she wasn't impressed with. Shows you how long ago she started buying coffee.



Along the same lines, my father always said, "Well, smell you for a quarter". I still don't understand what or where it comes from, but I do know there are few people I would pay a quarter to smell!
 

HadleyH

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,811
Location
Top of the Hill
"Keep it on the down' lo" ___ (means don't tell anyone else what I am about to tell you)

and

"Say it isn't so"-___ (...well may be this one is not so spectacular but always appear in my books about the 20s and 30s :) )
 

BonnieJean

Practically Family
Messages
519
Location
east of Wichita
I must live in a time warp...

I still use and/or hear a lot of the phrases mentioned here on this thread. lol
Older men call to each other with "Hey, old timer!"
How about, "like locking the barn door after the horse gets stolen",
and when a person is going on and on, "like beating a dead horse".
Or how about, "He can't carry a tune in a bucket" or
"he couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag".
"You better skee-daddle!"
Or my favorite road-rage comeback if someone cuts me off in traffic, "You ding dong!" (I say this out loud in my car and no, I don't yell it out of the window!)

Oh, I live in a rural area in the Midwest and maybe that's why a lot of the old phrases are still being used around here....
 

MrNewportCustom

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,265
Location
Outer Los Angeles
Dixon Cannon said:
And, did you know that the dollar sign is a devolution of the letters U.S. superimposed on one another?! The original dollar sign was U (and) S, one on top of the other. Eventually the bottom of the U was dropped. And later still, one of the parallel lines of the U was dropped to form the present day $. You can take that to the bank! (to use and old expression!).

-dixon cannon

Very interesting' I did not know that. I prefer to use the double-line dollar sign. I just like it better. I wish it was on my computer. :D


Thank you,
Lee
 

Dixon Cannon

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,157
Location
Sonoran Desert Hideaway
goldwyn girl said:
My Grandma had plenty, here's 3 that come to mind. Australian phrases......
Struth!!!
God, love a duck.
More front than Waltons

How 'bout Buckley's Chance! I actually know a couple, named Buckley and Chance. They'll never make it...not a Buckley's Chance!

-dixon cannon
 

MrNewportCustom

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,265
Location
Outer Los Angeles
Zig2k143 said:
I actually knew this... Although I spelt it wrong.... I am a trivia geek but I suck at spelling.

I've actually seen it spelled a number of ways: doozie, doosie, duesey. . . . I really don't think there is a set spelling, but that last one is a shortening of the name of the car.

Another classic - "Penny for your thoughts?"


Lee
_______________________

“Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.” - Robert Benchley
 

Joie DeVive

One Too Many
Messages
1,308
Location
Colorado
BonnieJean you reminded me of another one.

I heard this whenever I left a door open, growing up:
"Were you born in a barn??"
 

dhermann1

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,154
Location
Da Bronx, NY, USA
I watched a couple of good 1920's flicks last night on TCM (and have the circles under my eyes to prove it). In the 1926 Bea Lillie pic "Exit Smiling", they use the phrase "She knows her onions". The thought of it brought tears to my eyes.
Then in "Broadway Melody" (1929) they used a word that's hardly forgotten now, but it surprised me to hear it used so long ago. Two chorus girls are getting into a cat fight and one refers to the other as a BIMBO. So that one's been around for a good long while, apparently.
 

JazzBaby

Practically Family
Messages
559
Location
Eire
BonnieJean said:
I heard this one as a kid if I got between my dad and his football game on TV: "You make a better door than a window!"

Sadly I got the less pithy "I know you're a pain, but you're not a pane of glass!"

Now hold on a darn-tootin' minute!
 

Forum statistics

Threads
109,000
Messages
3,072,429
Members
54,038
Latest member
GloriaJama
Top