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Things people think you say in your country, when actually none of you do.

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Olulabelle

21:31 / 03.04.03

A friend of mine just said this: All tickety boo, as you say in UK.

Do we? Isn't that just the Hollywood mogul's representation of English people in the mooviees? I've never heard *anyone* say 'Tickety boo,' I wish I had.

So this thread is for things people think you say in your country, but actually no-one ever does.

The Apple-Picker

21:56 / 03.04.03

I have never heard or imagined anyone saying that in my entire life. What is it supposed to mean, anyway?

Saint Keggers

22:00 / 03.04.03

Ever since the Canadians in the south park movie pronounce about 'Aboot' I've been listening to see if any of us actually pronouce it that way. I've yet to hear that pronounciation.

The Jungle Keeper's Old Smoky Pipe, Haunted by The Black Dog Spirit

22:24 / 03.04.03

Ok, at least everybody in the world don't think your country speaks spanish, when you actually speaks portuguese... can be worst than that?

and what does "tickety boo" means?

Olulabelle

22:29 / 03.04.03

It's supposed to mean 'all OK.' Allegedly.

Threadrot: (This soon?!) If you say 'Ears' it sounds like you are saying 'Yes' but very, very poshly. End threadrot.

w1rebaby

00:37 / 04.04.03

I saw the "tickety-boo" thing in an advert for Jack In The Box. I suspect that's where it comes from. The corporate mascot is soliciting feedback in an "English" pub regarding some decidedly dodgy-looking fish and chips, and one of the lines the guy has to say is "tickety-boo". I can only imagine the poor chap's embarrassment on reading the script.

The Falcon

01:39 / 04.04.03

'Jings.'

'Och aye the noo.'

I don't even know what these things mean. But I can conceive of myself saying 'Aye, wee Jimmy?' in reference to a small person called Jimmy.

The Return Of Rothkoid

01:44 / 04.04.03

Anything that Steve Irwin says. He's like Bizarro Rothkoid.

videodrome

04:01 / 04.04.03

I always knew you lot were more like Paul Hogan, anyway.

Tezcatlipoca

04:32 / 04.04.03

I can't be certain, but I'm sure Tickety Boo is one of the many terms that became absorbed into our language as a result of the British Army being stationed in India. Much like our - now obsolete - word char, meaning tea; I think Tickety Boo comes from the Hindi tikai babu, meaning "It’s all right, sir".

Lilly Nowhere Late

05:05 / 04.04.03

Isn't "tickety boo" from Angela Landsbury in "Bed Knobs and
Broomsticks". Or some Disney misrepresentation of England and the
universe?
Incidentally, my Londoner husband likes to say I sound just like Dick
Van Dyke when trying to pull an English accent.(I am a real life born
and bred(not inbred) southern belle, amerikan style).

Is "Aye, wee Jimmy?" an imperative instructing Jimmy to urinate?

Shrug

05:14 / 04.04.03

In Therapy (a book by ?), someone used the term "tickety boo" and someone else commented that he had been reading too much PG Woodhouse. Were the settings of his books mainly in Colonial India? Doesn't mean much to me, but if you like useless factoids your welcome.

Do English people really say Cock-a-Top, if so what does it mean.

Ariadne

05:51 / 04.04.03

I have to confess that I do say 'Jings'. It started off ironically and now, to my shame, it's stuck. 'Crivens', too, though never, ever 'help ma boab'. So far.

Sax

05:52 / 04.04.03

Cock-a-hoop, more likely, which is like over the moon.

Sax

05:59 / 04.04.03

As a northern oik (thank you Bengali in Platforms) I have yet to say "Ey oop" while taking my whippet for a walk and dressed in my flat cap.

I have, however, been known to put my ferrets down my trousers on occasion.

uncle retrospective

07:27 / 04.04.03

I've never greeted anyone with Top O' the Morning nor have I ever said Begora when surprised. I have be known to say to be sure though.
Now stop looking at my lucky charms.

Cherry Bomb

07:39 / 04.04.03

I don't know if this is is on topic, but I've never heard anyone from San Francisco refer to it as "Frisco." Nor do people from Chicago call Chicago "The Windy City" (though I call it Big Windy after hearing Phil Donahue call it that once). Annoying DJs and no one else call it Chi-Town.

Kit-Cat Club

07:46 / 04.04.03

Therapy is by David Lodge, if it's the one I'm thinking of. PG Wodehouse - not the Raj, but a London full of splendid chaps and shocking old biffers and the Drones club, as frequented by Gussie Fink-Nottle et al...

I've probably said 'tickety-boo' at some point. Also 'jings', but that's because my father says it.

rizla mission

07:47 / 04.04.03

Threadrot: (This soon?!) If you say 'Ears' it sounds like you are saying 'Yes' but very, very poshly. End threadrot.

That just doesn't work though.. unless you put undue empasis on the latter part of the word, in which case you sound like you're saying 'yes' in the manner of the camp chef / prison guard who appears in the Simpsons occasionally..

Bear

07:55 / 04.04.03

One of my mates often says Tickety boo but more in a mocking kinda way, Jings is said all the time though and I know someone called Wee Jim and I'm pretty sure I would have said Aye, wee Jim at least once - does that count it's not quite Jimmy?

Whisky Priestess

08:00 / 04.04.03

"Cock-a-Top"

I have never heard this. Ever. And I've heard most weird expressions. Lilly, I'm afraid to say that your husband is probably right about you sounding like Dick van Dyke when attempting and English accent, and Kegboy, you are probably wrong about "aboot". My Canadian Anglophile boyfriend insists he doesn't say "aboot", but sometimes it creeps in. It's subtle but it's there - I just think it's aurally invisible to other Canadians. He also for some reason is very good at doing a posh English accent but abysmal at Cockney.

I used to be mocked aloud for saying "blimey" (from "Cor blimey", a corruption of God Blind Me, pleasasntly enough) because it's something that only fictional Cockneys and me say.

that

08:15 / 04.04.03

I wouldn't worry, lilly... you're in good company, all the people in 'Buffy' who attempt English accents sound like they're from the Dick Van Dyke school.

Olulabelle

08:20 / 04.04.03

Blimey. And me. All the time!

Whisky, it's Cock-a-hoop I think, as Sax suggested.

Uncle Retrospective, nor have I ever said Begora when surprised. Then you must start, it's wicked. Is it like Bejesus? Do you (not) say that either?

Spaniel

08:20 / 04.04.03

I was once told that "och aye the noo" means "oh yes the now". Not a very helpful phrase.

Ariadne

08:28 / 04.04.03

That's exactly what it means. People do say 'och, aye' and some people say 'the now' or something close to 'the noo' for 'right now'. Some smart alecky person has obviously picked up the two and shoved them together for amusement value and it's stuck.

Shrug

10:45 / 04.04.03

Is the term "Musha" as a term of affection toward a child uniquely Irish? I say shenanigans very sparingly I must admit.

Sax

10:54 / 04.04.03

"Mush" as a term of endearment (or as a vaguely menacing appellation made to someone who's about to get a good smack) is a common English, or at least Northern English term, I think.

We also like cock.

And love, pet, pal, mate, cocker, me old China, me little cock-sparrer, and a hundred and one other words that are preferable to actually addressing someone by their name.

Saveloy

11:16 / 04.04.03

Mush (pronounced "moosh") is big darn sarf an' all.

Does anyone ever say "coo!" outside of the comics? Not "coo-ee!", just "coo"?

Saveloy

12:08 / 04.04.03

I'm afraid I too say blimey, and even "Blimey o' Reilly" when super amazed. I think I caught it off a boy at school who used to read a lot of Commando comics [fascinating aside - did you know you can still buy them in WH Smiths, and they seem to carry exactly the same WW2 stories and "Crikey, it's the Bosch!" type shenanigans?]

[Threadrot]

Sax:
"And love, pet, pal, mate, cocker, me old China, me little cock-sparrer, and a hundred and one other words that are preferable to actually addressing someone by their name."

Dammit, what's the word or term for those things? Is it 'pet name'? Even if it's from a complete stranger?

[/Threadrot]

moriarty

12:18 / 04.04.03

"Ever since the Canadians in the south park movie pronounce about 'Aboot' I've been listening to see if any of us actually pronouce it that way. I've yet to hear that pronounciation.

I used to hang out with a gang of Buffalo kids, and they would make fun of us for this all the time. We do say it like that, but only in comparison to their pronunciation of the word, which goes the other way and is said "Abowt" and is very dragged out in the vowel. They also say "ass" like "ayyyyss".

And I have to admit to saying "eh" at the end of my sentences.

grant

12:32 / 04.04.03

For "my country" I'm choosing the beach.

No one says "gnarly" unless they're talking about Ents or doing Bill & Ted impressions.

Several people say "dude," and a few do it non-ironically.

*Lots* of people use "totally" as an interjection.

And "wipe out" is only used for specific occasions when someone attempting something physically tricky and falls down. This can be driving, skating, surfing, or just jumping hurdles. It's almost never an exclamation, though -- mostly a verb, occasionally a noun. "That's an ugly wipe out." "Yeah, you just wiped out."

deja_vroom

12:33 / 04.04.03

There was a brazilian charcter in the New Mutants (I think that's the name of the group). And he kept saying things like "Olé" and "gracias", which is a little bit strange for a brazilian to say, since Spanish is not our mother tongue. Ack, the twats.

Quantum

12:43 / 04.04.03

'Chaps' - nobody in England has said that for decades.

Quantum

12:47 / 04.04.03

"Several people say "dude," and a few do it non-ironically."
Hey, dude, less of the postmodern surferbashing, I was totally stoked just the other day when I snagged a gnarly tube and didn't wipe out until I had totally impressed the babes.
"Dood" is the postmodern 'Dude' BTW

Saveloy

13:41 / 04.04.03

I say chaps occasionally, never as a direct form of address (as in "sorry chaps, but it's looking bally grim,") but in reference to others ("those chaps over there"). It would be nice to see it return to use as a UK equivalent of the all-inclusive US 'guys'.

I'll tell you what we definitely don't say in England any more, and that's bloody "please", "thank you" and "excuse me, please". At least not to the degree that we're alleged to. In an average day you're lucky to get enough thank yous to fill a thimble. A f***ing thimble, I tell you!

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