Favorite old fashioned words

[Anonymous]

Tempest in a teapot

[Anonymous]

My grandfather used to say, "quiet as a mouse pissin on cotton." obviously not for use around kids.

[Anonymous]

Root beer stand.
Davenport.

[Anonymous]

Colder then a witch's tit.

[Anonymous]

Oh bother.

[Anonymous]

"As the crow flies..."

"Cool as a cucumber..."

"If I had my druthers..."

"Now we're cooking with gas."

"Nothing to write home about."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"champing at the bit" although I always said "chomping at the bit"

My mother says this! I love this thread.

Trying to bring back marvelous, one of my grandmother's word (She was the quintessential Old Southern Lady, with her perfect show-stopping garden and Depression Era ability to use everything to the last bit.

[Anonymous]

Tomfoolery!

[Anonymous]

4 yr old DS has picked up from his midwestern grandmother, "Oh, gosh!"

[Anonymous]

Some of the expressions our kids' favorite teachers used have become part of our family vocabulary. For example, my daughter's first-grade teacher, who grew up in an Italian n-hood in Pittsburgh. used to say "Mama mia!" whenever the kids were getting out of hand. It definitely caught their attention. Another teacher, who hated tattling, would say "I don't care if X is tap-dancing naked on the head of a chicken, I don't want you tattling to me about it."

OP, I lalso +ove your use of the word "shenanigans" -- reminds me of the scene in "Good Will Hunting" when George Plympton as a clueless shrink admonishes Will (Matt Damon), "No more shenanigans, no more tomfoolery, no more ballyhoo." My teens love this quote and use it all the time on each other.

[Anonymous]

Oh, my sainted pants!
(Scotland in the 1980s)

As fast as a fart on a waxed tablecloth
(my grandfather, translated from the French)

Have been re-reading Pride and Prejudice for the millionth time - love the language. Things like thither...

[Anonymous]

nincompoop

[Anonymous]

to shellack (verb)

I shellacked him in that game of gin rummy

[Anonymous]

from my grandfather - Brasafritch (no clue of spelling - this is the phonetical spelling)

from my grandma - Davenport (another name for couch/sofa)

from my other grandma - "useless as tits on a boar" (I was shocked as a kid when she would say this - I was a pastor's kid and rather sheltered)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't really use it, but I love "picture" to mean "movie."

As in:

"There's a new picture showing downtown...I have to hurry to get tickets!"

Totally reminds me of my grandfather.

LOL! I love saying "program" for a tv show like my grandmother does. I'll tell DH "My program is starting!"

I also love "Jiminy Christmas!"

And my mom used to say "simmer down!" to me and my sister. I'll have to break that one out with DD soon.