Sussex phrases from the past

[GT49er]

...and quite a few more variations her - shu-erum - Google Search

 

[Hove Lagoonery]

I can remember my uncles and my father (all good Sussex farming stock) using some phrases you never hear now:

"Thank you muchly" was one.

Also telling someone the time it was always "Five and twenty past two" or "Five and twenty to four", never twenty-five past or twenty-five to.

Anyone have any others?

These aren't confined to Sussex. The first one is used by someone I know from Wiltshire, and the second is used nationally, usually by old folk.

 

[csider]

'That's The Kiddie' .. meaning 'that's what i mean' / 'that's what i'm talking about'

use that phrase often

 

[Lord Bracknell]

"Five and twenty" for "25" is obviously based on reading Arabic numerals from right to left. It's a relic of the days when your ancestors read everything from right to left and is proof of the fact that they were originally Muslim immigrants.

There's nothing particularly Sussex about it.

 

[csider]

Anyone going to Coasters tonight??

 

[Screaming J]

I have only heard kiddie being used to describe man/boy in Brighton and Sussex.

Usually with the word 'old' before it as in 'old kiddie'.

 

[Questions]

"Five and twenty" for "25" is obviously based on reading Arabic numerals from right to left. It's a relic of the days when your ancestors read everything from right to left and is proof of the fact that they were originally Muslim immigrants.

There's nothing particularly Sussex about it.

Does that also explain why my old dad used to wear a hankercheif on his head ?

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Somewhen

 

[DIFFBROOK]

Twitten, is the only one that I can recall. Oh and "We are Brighton, Super Brighton, from the South"

 

[Deleted User X18H]

Mrs Oohjackanpiffy

 

[Deportivo Seagull]

I also have a letter written by my Great Grandfather to my Grandfather already mentioned in the previous, it it he calls morning "forenoon", another old fashioned saying.

I suspect that your Grand Grandfather may have been a seafairing man.

From memory if you are general service in the Royal Navy the watch between 0800 and 1200 is called the 'Forenoon'. The watch between 0400 and 0800 is the morning watch.
Strangely the watch between 1600 and 1800 is called the first Dog, the last Dog is between 1800 and 2000. Collectively known as the 'Dog watch'.

I really must get a life

 

[BLOCK F]

'Were you born in Yapton'?....a question posed to people who never closed the door behind them!

 

[Father Jack]

a sussex half? when i worked at a bar the old boys used to ask for that - it basically means if you have drunk 3/4 of the pint have it re-filled to the top but only pay for a half. i think.

 

[Danny-Boy]

There's trouble oop at call-in centre.....

Don't blame me, I voted Labour..

UKIP are a load of nutters...

 

[NMH]

Dunno about Sussex exclusive coloquialisms, but some expressions are fading from future vocabulary. "I wouldn't half like to go for a ride" is one, and stuff like "blimey" and "crikey" are not common to youthful verbage.

 

[Mackenzie]

Dunno about Sussex exclusive coloquialisms, but some expressions are fading from future vocabulary. "I wouldn't half like to go for a ride" is one, and stuff like "blimey" and "crikey" are not common to youthful verbage.

also 'smashing' to describe somthing good....e.g.El:' we've just beaten palace 3-1'
Dad: 'smashing'

 

[Gilliver's Travels]

My father had the residue of a Sussex rural accent. eg, pronouncing "down" more like "deouwn." And he used a few words which weren't in any dictionary. eg a verb "rafe" [ sp?] as in "Look at that fire, rafing away!", to express disapproval at burning too much coke in the boiler.

And a few odd expressions too: If a paint run on a door panel was barely noticeable, then "A blind man would be glad to see it!" And he would mock my mother's occasional lack of dexterity as "Awkward as a cow with a musket!"

And try telling me that one isn't old. But, is it actually Sussex? Anyone?

 

[strings]

I can remember the word munter being used in the Worthing area in the early 90's, far earlier than it became used nationally, was always convinced that it was a regional word that just became popular elsewhere.

I grew up in Littlehampton nd was using the word munter in the mid 1990's - I never stopped to think that it wasn't used elsewhere at the time.

 

[countrygull]

Alright love fancy a shag

alright fella, fancy a shag. (believed to be based in Brighton)

 

[Norman Potting]

My father had the residue of a Sussex rural accent. eg, pronouncing "down" more like "deouwn." And he used a few words which weren't in any dictionary. eg a verb "rafe" [ sp?] as in "Look at that fire, rafing away!", to express disapproval at burning too much coke in the boiler.

And a few odd expressions too: If a paint run on a door panel was barely noticeable, then "A blind man would be glad to see it!" And he would mock my mother's occasional lack of dexterity as "Awkward as a cow with a musket!"

And try telling me that one isn't old. But, is it actually Sussex? Anyone?

"Cow with a musket" is one I frequently use when trying to chivvy my daughters to get ready for school. "Fart in a colander" is one my dear old mum uses (full version "Like a fart in a colander trying to decide which hole to escape through" - ie indecisive) and "shit and fell back in it" is the country version of "hoist by his own petard".