The Wide, Wide World Of Slang

[roundround]

I've heard the word 'feck' being used on messageboards, etc., lately, but I'm sure it originated in Ireland.
Other Irish slang:
gobdaw: fool.
hames: mess (as in 'you made a hames of it')
chancer: a dodgy person
crisps: potato chips
covers: blankets
Here's one I like -
ossified: drunk

[chiqui]

Does anyone else use the word "Schnivlings?" It's of Yiddish or German extraction I think, and used to refer to small pieces of food, i.e. meal leftovers that are fed to pets.

[pepper67]

Does anyone else use the word "Schnivlings?" It's of Yiddish or German extraction I think, and used to refer to small pieces of food, i.e. meal leftovers that are fed to pets.

That's so cute, chiqui! I'm going to try to remember that for the next time my cats are trying to invade my dinner plate.

[sjankis630]

The time I spent growing up in southern Virginia we always had a derogatory name for anyone's cheap "sneakers" or "tennis shoes". We used to affectionately call them "footburners" . My buddy from college who grew up in the Tidewater area said they used to call them "buttercookies" By the way, that city in the tidewater area that is spelled Norfolk is actually pronounced "Nor- Fuck." Actually any town in Southern VA ending in "folk" tends to be pronounced the same way. Suffolk is "Suf Fuck" Don't know why.

We also used to call any package of 6 crackers with peanut butter between them "nabs" short for nabisco which at the time was the most popular manufacturer of the tasty treats.
Oh and my parents who lived out in Reno Navada hate it when people pronounce the second syllable in the state Navada like you would pronounce "Prada" They and everyone living out there back in the 60s always pronounced it Na-Vaa-Da. Like you pronounce at-a-boy.
Also, our term when I lived out in San Francisco for anyone wearing pants that were too short was "floods" Here in the south they call them "highwaters" It's funny how diverse putdowns can be.

[raqs]

The time I spent growing up in southern Virginia we always had a derogatory name for anyone's cheap "sneakers" or "tennis shoes". We used to affectionately call them "footburners" .

Here they call them "plastic straws" - inference being that them and drinking straws being made from the same material.

Lime - to hang out. Verb: Liming. Noun: Lime
Fete - Party. Verb: Feteing. Noun: Fete.
One can lime a fete!

Not slang per se, but it those "You know you are Caribbean/West Indian if.." meme things include
All paper tissues/towels are Kleenex
All toothpaste is Colgate
All soap is Palmolive
All nail polish is Cutex
All crackers are Crix/laundry detergent is Breeze (local brands)
All dishwashing liquid was Squezy until they rebranded it a few years ago to Quix (?) and spawned a furor of outrage among the housewives.
Polenta is coo-coo
Bananas are figs
... and dolphin, which is found on every restaurant menu is actually mahi-mahi, not real dolphins.

[ramonaq]

Wow -- I didn't know we had this thread! How freaking cool! Excuse while I go back to page 1 and read it voraciously.

[titilayo]

Since I began travelling with my job, I've begun to suspect that a fair number of expressions I thought were normal English are actually local/regional vernacular. Can't think of many right now, but here's one: "all two", meaning both, as in "Do you want ice cream, or cake, or all two?" Does anyone else say this, or is it a Caribbean thing? Or maybe not even a Caribbean thing, but restricted to my island?

Count me in as someone who also uses dude too much, which I think is much better than 'guy' which I think is a Scarborough(Ontario, Canada) thing.

I picked that "guy" thing up while I was in Canada. I think I'm going to start using it again, 'cause I love the way it sounds.

[LAX]

A friend of mine was telling a story about how he was thrown out of Meah Shearim, a very conservative neighborhood in Jerusalem that holds very high standards for acceptable dress, for wearing thongs. God help me, I kept getting a visual of him and his skinny little ass wandering through this Hassidic neighborhood with a little bitty buttfloss, even though I know that by thongs he meant flip-flops.

[heyalice]

I've never heard of 'all two' but I've been hearing 'two-twos' of late and it's been driving me nuts.

[ramonaq]

"A couple-three" drives me crazy. To my mind, that's six.

What does "two-twos" mean?