'Going to the dogs' does actually mean things are falling apart. Think about it, only a very small portion of the population actually visit greyhound races. Bill
It's not polava, it's palaver. Going to the dogs does also mean going downhill fast. The mutt's nuts is often said as the dog's bollocks. Spitting their dummy out is also said as throwing their toys out of the pram. To be fair you guys say things that make other people laugh like, "The USA is the greatest country in the world". That makes everybody everywhere outside the USA fall about laughing.
If you had a Polish man attempting to change into a sweater while he's driving that could result in a palaver as police pull over the Pole over his pullover.
@@KenFullman there's a trailer on his car with a meringue and cream dessert in it. So the palaver is over the police pulling over the pole over pulling his pullover while pulling a pavlova
If she's never heard the dog's bollocks, she's hanging out with some very posh friends, and the mutts nuts is probably just a cute way to try to be properly coarse!!
I personally love "can't be arsed" it just conjures up the right image when you can't be bothered to do something or have no interest in something.......its a gem of a phrase. 😂
She had it right first time . `Going to the dogs`, the Google definition is to become ruined or to change to a much worse condition. Whoever told her it was about greyhound racing? 🤣
Agreed, it isn't specifically about dog racing, but I think our British layered society might be coming into the expression as well, posh people go to the best restaurants, like the go to the horse racing, also they eat the best food the peasants can have the next best go to dog racing and each cheaper food, and the dogs are at the bottom of the food chain and have the rotten scraps.
It probably is about greyhound racing. The origin is that dog racing was seen as far lower in the social scale than horse racing and was attended by a lower class of people. Anybody going down in the world was therefore seen as "going to the dogs".
@@TheHicksonDiaries from a northern England perspective., going to the dogs has always meant falling apart, going to wrack and ruin, going to pot, it might have come from going to the dogs when we had greyhound tracks, they all shut down years ago up this way.
The Mutt's Nuts is said ALL the time! I have been hearing countless people saying it for decades. However, I've rarely heard it abbreviated as "the nuts", it's usually "The Mutt's". I also sometimes hear "the dogs danglies" and "the hound's rounds". These phrases are even mentioned in a British Slang video with Simon Pegg and Henry Cavill (both of whom are as British as can be).
The English language is perfectly formed to express EXACTLY the meaning you wish to express with no misunderstandings. “While” and “Whilst” are words with different usage and each has a place grammatically.
I was gobsmacked when I learned Americans don’t use fortnight! I went to the foot of our stairs and reflected that it’s all going to hell on a jet ski mostyn!!
not only do Americans not say fortnight, they use a similar term "bi-weekly" - which i assumed meant "every two weeks" - eg a fortnight it might mean "twice a week", but i normally assume it means "every two weeks" (or once a fortnight, in English)
@@stevesoutar3405 I was in a Francisco tram with my wife and used the word fortnight. A woman leaned over and said, in an Australian accent, "You must be British, for I've not heard that word spoken here for years!
" shut the fridge" , " we'll go tut bottom of the stairs" both exclamations, wherever you travel in this country you will find different and interesting colloquiums that make the language interesting, lively and fun, people are incredibly inventive with the English language. Nice video,
We have the master wordsmith, William Shakespeare to thank for many words and phrases still in common usage 500 years later. Whilst many may have evolved slightly, he would still recognise them.
I like some of the slightly older sayings that are sadly now going out of fashion….not enough room to swing a cat….dont spoil the ship for a h’apeth of tar, caught red handed etc. Just shows language is ever evolving…..also shows my age!
Untoward- easiest way to understand it is as a near synonym to inappropriate Never used with an s on the end Just untoward Another version of spitting the dummy would be Oooh, teddy in the corner Another favourite of mine is if someone's throwing a tantrum is to say "Ooh, someone's tired"
@@jd_jd_jd Hi! "The Cat's Pyjamas" is a term I have met in english/american literature of the early 20th centaury. There is a book called *Spilling the Beans on the Cat's Pyjamas: Popular Expressions - What They Mean and Where We Got Them by Judy Parkinson* OK?
" It's the mutts nuts " is the polite way of saying, " it's the dogs bollocks, " the original phrase. One of my favourite phrases is " I'm going to see a man about a dog "
It started out as a ruder and maybe more impactful version of phrases such as "The bee's knees" or "The cat's whiskers". Being English, we had to make a ruder version. Also, being English, we came up with a way to make it sound more polite when we were done.
Palaver - something that is unnecessarily overly complicated, though the original historical meaning was where the commanders of opposing forces who spoke different languages would come together to try to have a conference and sort matters out rather than fight. Also a group meeting at a diplomatic level again with multiple languages and overly complicated.
Actually, historically palaver was a term for the negotiation between British merchants and the native Africans with whom they were trading. Such negotiations were difficult and protracted being carried out by a combination of pidgin, mime and hand gestures.
One American word that makes me laugh is when they say "dove" instead of dived. The first time I encountered it was in a novel and I thought it meant the dove bird. Another is when the say "negative one" instead of minus one.
@@TheHicksonDiaries because if you were to undertake a “math test” - would it be that there was only one sum to solve?! Noooo…. Of course not There would a whole page of pesky problems - hence MathSSSSS 😂😂
Whilst isn’t a slang/fun/archaic word. Yes it can mean while, though whilst sounds more formal but it also can be a conjunction meaning ‘whereas’ E.g. ‘some people like playing rugby whilst others prefer playing soccer’.
You say "Obviously I can't do it in the British accent", but you don't give yourself credit. Your pronunciation of "You're doin' me 'ead in!" in a southern English working-class accent was perfect! Well done!
What a palaver! Is really used to describe a ordeal you go through in order to get something done. For instance, getting your visa. Giving lots of seamingly random information (muliple times), lots of comms back and forth, hoops to jump through for no apparent reason, other than 'it's required', then silence until a letter arrives and you open it excitedly, only to find you need to repost some info you already sent weeks ago! Finally, your visa arrives. What a palaver!
"Palaver" - from the Portuguese palavra, which usually means "speech" or "word" but was used by Portuguese traders with the specific meaning "discussions with natives." The Portuguese word traces back to the Late Latin parabola, a noun meaning "speech" or "parable."
I’m American and I pronounce “hover” with the short “o” sound (rhymes with “cover”). If I say “hoover”, I’m either referring to an American president by that name, the massive hydroelectric dam of the same name, or a brand of vacuum cleaner. Not sure what the world “behove” is. That’s a really cool and neat new word for me.
Doing me head in! Comes as a bunch of sayings with different connotations Doing me head in He does me head in Etc. it can be utilised all sorts of different frustrating situations
Thank you for this funny video ❤ it made me smile.. in England, we love a conversation to be more like something we call 'banter' .. we also call it "taking the piss," especially when someone takes it a bit too far 😂😂 .. I'm looking forward to hearing more 🙂👍🏻
"The Chinese restaurant in town has really gone to the dogs", means it used to be really good but it has rapidly declined. Alternate to the "mutts nuts" is the "dogs doodahs", exactly the same meaning though. I've also heard it called the "caninus testiculus". 😂😂
Palaver originally ment just "conversation" = same word origin like the french "parlez" or italian "parlare" or portuguese "palavre" for "to speak" (originally in the past a sailor´s international term for verbally interacting amongst sailors from different nations when meeting on the high sea (might be for trading, or negotiating terms of battles or even terms of surrender) which were at first foremost romance languages speaking nations like the very early medi evil seapowers and City states "Venice + Genoa" then followed in the Rennaisance times by the Portuguese and Spaniards obviously short after also followed then by the English + French= basically all the uprising European´s colonial powers used that term) and it also became then a military term on the continent for the same reasons as well simply because those colonial powers were way more in war than in peace with each other or with someone else.. We in German use the term "Palaver" (noun) or "palavern" (verb) for describing a totally senseless and useless conversation or speech with no meaningful outcome= basically for talking utter nonsense (but when the nonsense talker is not aware of him talking utter nonsense then we make him aware by using that specific terms for his talk...Like saying "That´s just a Palaver" (= the content has no substance) or "Stop to palavern" = "Stop talking shit" although I admit that use is nowadays way more common amongst the older Generation...I personally never heard a young one using that terms anymore)
@@carolynekershaw1652 Sorry for being a linguistics lecturer but while and whilst are are different as too, two and two. If some people muddle them up, it’s their fault and not the fault of the words. Oh, and when I lived in Manchester while was used to mean until and still is in local speech. I stayed up while nine but he never showed.
@@Joanna-il2ur substituting while for until is regional dialect local to part of West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, not sure it has anything to do with the anachronistic use of whilst rather then while. A Greek friend once asked me when whilst should be used instead of while, I suggested before 1685 . . .
I remember in school English lessons discussing when one particular word/phrase could the perfect choice, for which the chosen term was the French "le mot juste". I have a feeling that on different occasions, "among" or "amongst" could be le mot juste, but I'm not sure exactly when. It was all a very long time ago.
Uh, no, you were right in the first place with "going to the dogs." We might also say "rack and ruin," it's something which is a shadow of its former self.
As an Aussie, I use all of these except the mutt's nuts. Never heard that one before, it's usually the bee's knees or the duck's nuts (which is weird because ducks don't have them)., You won't hear jog on in Aus either (too British). I admit being stunned that fortnight isn't used the US!
It does mean things falling apart. Going to the dogs means the vicious dogs ripping it apart.. being destroyed. Your right. Although it does also mean going to the dog racing too. Its how you use it.
Nice to see a bottle of Australian wine,Taylor's Promised Land, on the shelf, in the background. Can't make out which variety, however, obviously a red. Very good value for money.
😊😊😊😊 The words untoward and whilst are words that aren't used often ,if ever used in every conversation,they are used in some books , probably more serious ones and the more serious newspapers like the Times , Telegraph and Guardian another variation of" spitting out your dummy"is throwing your toys out of the pram " it's another one that says you're being childish/petulant. The going to dogs phrase dates back to the 16 th century,meat that wasn't fit for human consumption was thrown to the dogs for them to eat ,we use it to mean "it's gone tits up " (another saying for you) everything has gone wrong,is a favourite of mine ,glad to see you having fun learning British sayings, learning can be fun 😊😊😊😊.❤❤
I both say, and write (type, these days) 'untoward' _and_ 'whilst'... In fact, I probably use 'whilst' everyday. Whether or not it's due to my age (I shall be 71 this coming early August '24) or it's just that the way I was taught to speak and, especially, to _write English_ back in the 1960's has been my 'modus operandi' ever since, I could not tell you, but that is the case... Perhaps I'm in the minority these days as so many 'Americanisms' have "crept into our crypts, cr*pped, and are _not_ creeping back out" ?!! I strive, however to maintain some 'sense of decorum' and thus, continue to endeavour holding my standard ...and yes, I slip and stumble along the way, but, I still try! ("Oxford comma" included!) 🤔🏴❤🙂🖖
@@brigidsingleton1596 Like you I'm old enough to remember the swinging 60's ,I find the language has moved on and left me behind,not that I care anymore,most of my cultural references are just a distant memory,if I'm writing an email or text I can't not use capital letters where appropriate ,it's a quirk ,if I'm asked for part of my phone number ( last three digits)I can't do it ,it has to be the whole of the number.Now't so queer as folk 😊😊❤️❤️.
I quite get how odd it is when although we speak the same language essentially there are the strange oddities. Particularly how coy Americans are about public toilets: I felt quite giggly when in the USA having to ask the whereabouts of the ‘restroom’, I mean, I don’t need to go for a rest but to pee!
There are an almost infinite number of such expressions. "On yer bike" =jog on. The upper-classes would say disparagingly to the lower orders "run along now". Spitting feathers & the more extreme "spitting blood" also come to mind instead of "...dummy"
Lots of expressions spring to mind: 'I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole.' (I want nothing to do with this person). A barge pole (found on narrow boats) is about 8 feet long. 'He's not the full shilling.' 'He's not playing with a full deck of cards.' 'He's away with the fairies.' (someone with delusional mental health problems). 'He was hoist by his own petard.' A very old expression meaning to be destroyed by your own actions. A petard was an explosive device placed against the gate of a fortress, the fuse lit and you ran away before it exploded. Sometimes the fuse was only a few seconds and it exploded prematurely killing whoever lit the fuse. They were 'hoist'.
Living in America and using British terms I’ve found Americans think it’s hilarious when you call someone a wanker and so many I’ve met have started using the term, I’m afraid I may have started something over here with it
Can't understand why "whilst" trips you up! It's a normal word, probably a bit more formal and educated than "while" in some circumstances, but no-one would raise an eyebrow if you used it.
British English is replete with slang, proverbs and idioms, many of which have regional variations, that have often existed for several centuries. It is part of its attraction and fun. Unfortunately, American English, being a stripped-down pidgin version, retained none of the original's charm. Pity.
In Britain the difference between spitting your dummy out and a Karen is the first is as you say getting annoyed or upset over something usually trivial and a Karen is someone who is expectant of everything to be done the way they think it should and complaining about it if is isn’t
Speaking as an Englishman, I speak English, and you are a foreigner who claims to speak my language, whereas, in reality you speak a bastardised form of my language due in part to Mr Webster and mainly due to natural shifts in language when a settlement is separated from it's verbal roots by a couple of hundred years.
As a fellow Englishman I find your comments both crass and ignorant. Unless you're wandering about whichever part of the country benighted by your domicile still talking Elizabethan English, modern English usage is as far from the linguistic ( not verbal as you state) common root as modern American usage. If fact modern American usage retains many words used in the early modern period now lost in England, such as 'fall' to mean autumn, 'faucet' to mean tap or spigot and ' sidewalk '. These, and others were once commonly used in England. American English is as valid a variation of the language as the English English - describing is as bastardised is both wrong, and offensive. You might as well describe English itself as bastardised French or Norse.
@@Spiritof1955 How did Mark Twain put it? “Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with their experience.” By your description, Mr. Daniel Webster seems to have done the same with American English. (I say this with tongue planted firmly in cheek. I personally find how languages evolve and change over time rather fascinating.)
"Jog on" is somewhat confrontational and would be used when someone is interfering in someone else's business/conversation. Street charity workers ('chuggers', which is short for CHarity mUGGERS) or beggars might be told to jog on, but most people are not so rude.
Did you know that Americans still use really old English terms that we gave up long ago. "Gotten" is one. The other one that comes to mind quickly is Jamaicans not Americans I think but it is "aks" for "ask". Others are "fall" "trash" "diaper" and "faucet"
@@andyp5899 Not just the West Country, It was standard until about 1600 from the old word "acsian". Chaucer used "ax" in the Miller's tale he uses both versions "Axe nat why, for though thou aske me, / I wol nat tellen goddes pryvetee." It's in the first complete translation of the Bible.
@@TheHicksonDiaries Yes. Those English people can be pretty strange. You can also use it to inform someone of an event. "Did you see Bruce have that major dummy spit this morning?" With a response, "Yeah. He spat the dummy big time."
A palaver is "a lot of unnecessary activity, excitement or trouble, especially caused by something that is not important" It comes from portuguese, apparently.
"Doing my head in" can also be "Twisting my Melon". It was used in one of the "Stone Roses" songs. "Your having a bubble!" , is cockney rhyming slang for "Your having a laugh!" Bubble Bath rhymes with laugh but you miss out the bath bit. "Codswallop" is an old word and it's pronounced as if it was two separate words "Cods Wallop" and used to describe fish guts (the stuff you throw away..rubbish), and it would to be used as "What a load of old Codswallop" or "Hes talking Codswallop"
I use the idiom “Fry your noodle”, as in your noodle (your brains) are getting fried (confused, twisted around, etc.) The first instance of its use I’ve encountered is in the first Matrix movie and Oracle uses it in her conversation with Neo. I loved it instantly and squirreled it away in my brain attic for later use.
Fun vid. Thanks. 'The mutt's nuts' is a politer way. The original is 'The dog's bollocks', which is funnier. Most of those I use often, as this is my home. I do have some US ones, have lived there for a decade. The French ones, from my time there, are funny but trickier to explain. Language is grand.
I hate "whatever" and when my kids were teenager I told them that if they ever said it, they would be out of the house and living on the street. Of course it was not the actual words, but the attitude that went with it. They never did say it, or do the attitude but we all had a laugh when I went to a small corner shop in the next town and it had painted on the board with the shop them, their mission statement which was "Whatever - wherever". Which we all said, with attitude from then on when we saw a small shop.
'Going to the dogs' does actually mean things are falling apart. Think about it, only a very small portion of the population actually visit greyhound races. Bill
Not to be confused, of course, with a young teenaged lad's being accused of 'Only going out with dogs' - an entirely _different_ connotation!
You might say sadly, "The country is going to the dogs under the Tories."
yeah it means going to the dogs as in throwing scraps of food we wouldnt eat to the dogs. comes from medieval times
@@missharry5727I might say "it's *gone* to the dogs under the tories."
@@Rachel_M_ and you'd be absolutely right.
It's not polava, it's palaver. Going to the dogs does also mean going downhill fast. The mutt's nuts is often said as the dog's bollocks. Spitting their dummy out is also said as throwing their toys out of the pram. To be fair you guys say things that make other people laugh like, "The USA is the greatest country in the world". That makes everybody everywhere outside the USA fall about laughing.
Oi Mark
You're obviously a proper geezer telling it like it is not the cleaned up transatlantic non-cockney bollocks ❤ 👍
"land of the free" (cough: and HOAs, and crazy puritan culture around drinking, and good luck staying alive while being black)
Also the bees knees.
If you had a Polish man attempting to change into a sweater while he's driving that could result in a palaver as police pull over the Pole over his pullover.
@@KenFullman there's a trailer on his car with a meringue and cream dessert in it.
So the palaver is over the police pulling over the pole over pulling his pullover while pulling a pavlova
"The Mutts Nuts" is a more polite version of "It's the Dogs Bollocks"😂😂😂😂
🇬🇧😂
....which means 'outstanding', because canine testicles often stand out.
@@frankupton5821 I think you've got it there.
... or the Puppy's Privates 🤣
If she's never heard the dog's bollocks, she's hanging out with some very posh friends, and the mutts nuts is probably just a cute way to try to be properly coarse!!
I've heard both...
I personally love "can't be arsed" it just conjures up the right image when you can't be bothered to do something or have no interest in something.......its a gem of a phrase. 😂
My mum didn't tend to swear but would sometimes say to us kids "You can't be asked to do anything". It sounded so much like "you can't be arsed...."!
It is a good one, and one I hear very often. 😀
@@Phiyedough So your mum's the one to blame for that being a thing. And no; arsed doesn't sound anything like asked.
@@chrisbodum3621That depends on your accent.
She had it right first time .
`Going to the dogs`, the Google definition is to become ruined or to change to a much worse condition.
Whoever told her it was about greyhound racing? 🤣
Agreed, it isn't specifically about dog racing, but I think our British layered society might be coming into the expression as well, posh people go to the best restaurants, like the go to the horse racing, also they eat the best food the peasants can have the next best go to dog racing and each cheaper food, and the dogs are at the bottom of the food chain and have the rotten scraps.
It probably is about greyhound racing. The origin is that dog racing was seen as far lower in the social scale than horse racing and was attended by a lower class of people. Anybody going down in the world was therefore seen as "going to the dogs".
people in my private life...
I prefer "gone to pot" - an older expression ? The older ones are the best IMO, they're often not so explicit, but at least as expressive
@@TheHicksonDiaries from a northern England perspective., going to the dogs has always meant falling apart, going to wrack and ruin, going to pot, it might have come from going to the dogs when we had greyhound tracks, they all shut down years ago up this way.
Brit here - I'm not a pessimist, I'm an optimist with experience...
👏👏👏👏👏 well said.
@@bobhopest3540 Precisely!
We like to be understated, so to anyone from North America, we appear to be pessimistic.
interesting spin...
An optimist believes we live in the best possible world. A pessimist fears this may well, sadly, be true.
'The Mutt's Nuts' is never said. It's always the Dog's Bollocks' Bill
Yes it is. Everyone know it means the dog’ bollocks, and is an alternative expression.
@@rikmoran3963 Dogs danglies in politer company.
Dogs Bollocks is also a beer brewed by Wychwood Brewery.
@@rikmoran3963 Everyone doesn't. I have never heard it before this video.
The Mutt's Nuts is said ALL the time! I have been hearing countless people saying it for decades.
However, I've rarely heard it abbreviated as "the nuts", it's usually "The Mutt's". I also sometimes hear "the dogs danglies" and "the hound's rounds". These phrases are even mentioned in a British Slang video with Simon Pegg and Henry Cavill (both of whom are as British as can be).
Spitting their dummy out would have been easier for you to understand if somebody had told you a dummy is what Americans call a pacifier.
yeah--still enormously funny....
Going to the dogs - not as good as it used to be.
Off to the dogs - going to the greyhound track.
huh---that makes sense, thanks.
Palaver is a real word.
In common parlance it is used to express frustration at an unnecessarily complicated or overelaborate process.
Palaver derives from the same root as the French Parler, to talk. Palaver was when a negotiation takes a long time for something simple.
The English language is perfectly formed to express EXACTLY the meaning you wish to express with no misunderstandings. “While” and “Whilst” are words with different usage and each has a place grammatically.
In USA they tend to use farther and further but in UK most people just say further regardless of the context.
Whilst is just the obsolescent form of WHILE. Same as 'amongst' for among, etc. Unnecessary. Using these words is simply pretentious.
@@rahb1 Everything is unnecessary when you don’t know it exists.
what are the uses of each?
Whilst is the genitive of while. A rare survivor of a time when English was a far more inflected language.
I was gobsmacked when I learned Americans don’t use fortnight! I went to the foot of our stairs and reflected that it’s all going to hell on a jet ski mostyn!!
not only do Americans not say fortnight, they use a similar term "bi-weekly" - which i assumed meant "every two weeks" - eg a fortnight
it might mean "twice a week", but i normally assume it means "every two weeks" (or once a fortnight, in English)
nope, still have to confirm that it means 2 weeks when someone else says it to me.
@@stevesoutar3405 I was in a Francisco tram with my wife and used the word fortnight. A woman leaned over and said, in an Australian accent, "You must be British, for I've not heard that word spoken here for years!
Going to the dogs has nothing to do with dog racing. You had it right the first time.
ok, thanks.
" shut the fridge" , " we'll go tut bottom of the stairs" both exclamations, wherever you travel in this country you will find different and interesting colloquiums that make the language interesting, lively and fun, people are incredibly inventive with the English language. Nice video,
thank you....
You having a Giraffe ? = I say old chap are you having a laugh at my expense
someone I know says that a lot....haha
We have the master wordsmith, William Shakespeare to thank for many words and phrases still in common usage 500 years later. Whilst many may have evolved slightly, he would still recognise them.
Quite right and he probably spoke more like somebody from Virginia than somebody from Stratford.
"Done up like a Dogs Dinner" - means well dressed if not overly so, very well groomed. Applicable to both male & female.
Another version of 'spitting the dummy' is 'throwing their toys out of the pram' Bill
Yes, "throwing toys out of the pram" is much better, as is "handbags" which describes the same sort of thing but involves at least two antagonists!.
Or "throwing one's Teddy in the corner".
Spitting feathers is another, possibly more angry, version!
also throwing out the baby with the bath water
@@vinceturner3863 Rubbish, that's another thing entirely.
English is a broad language and playing around with it is fun. Every body is allowed to express them selves.
Agree...it's the creativity that I love the most....particularly with your insults.
'Jog on' is a milder form of 'f off and get out of my face'.
Hahaha---I prefer the latter in most cases...
I once made an American chuckle by saying I'd take the "cheap and cheerful" option. (The opposite of something premium / high quality / expensive.)
More recently people have started calling things "poverty spec."
I like "Cheep and cheerful"
I like some of the slightly older sayings that are sadly now going out of fashion….not enough room to swing a cat….dont spoil the ship for a h’apeth of tar, caught red handed etc.
Just shows language is ever evolving…..also shows my age!
The culture isn't pessimistic. The humour can be dark. Going to the dogs does mean going to the dogs and going wrong.
it is pessimistic come on we are constantly moaning
@@sac5608 have to agree with you on this one
The spelling of the first word is palaver - it's well-established and dates from 1733.
I spelled it how it sounds to me with the accent,
if it's "Gone to the dogs" it has been give to the dogs for dinner, usually your dinner, now means we're in trouble, it's a mess, it's hit the fan lul
I'm a 58 year old English woman and ive quite literally never heard anyone ever say 'the mutt's nuts' . The dog's bollocks, is what we actually say!
Untoward- easiest way to understand it is as a near synonym to inappropriate
Never used with an s on the end
Just untoward
Another version of spitting the dummy would be
Oooh, teddy in the corner
Another favourite of mine is if someone's throwing a tantrum is to say "Ooh, someone's tired"
"untoward"--haha--I'm laughing even reading it.
That's "The Business", (exactly what's required.) > The Bee's Knees, > The Dog's Bollocks, > The Cat's Pyjamas, etc.
All very good....
May I ask which part of the country uses cat's pyjamas ...I've never heard it
@@jd_jd_jd Hi! "The Cat's Pyjamas" is a term I have met in english/american literature of the early 20th centaury.
There is a book called *Spilling the Beans on the Cat's Pyjamas: Popular Expressions - What They Mean and Where We Got Them by Judy Parkinson* OK?
I like " he's a dozy twonk " and " daft as a brush"
Ok---never heard of either of those, but I like 'em
Have you come across "It's looking a bit black over Bill's mother's"?
Common saying of my mothers.
No--wtf does that mean?
@@TheHicksonDiariesEast Midlands/North - The weather doesn't look very nice in the direction it usually comes from. ;-)
@@TheHicksonDiaries it was a common saying when you was travelling and the black clouds was gathering ahead of you.
It's a very common saying in the Midlands. My grandparents always used to say it when you can see black clouds in the distance.
"Muts nuts" is just a clean way of saying "The dogs bollocks" hay, say it as it is, It's the best thing you've ever seen.
I don't know how it's any cleaner tho, tbh
It's not just whilst. There's also amongst, amidst, betwixt...they are a bit old-fashioned, but they make for a pleasant variety in language.
Yes, this!!! ^^^^ More pleasant variety, please and thank you!. 😀
" It's the mutts nuts " is the polite way of saying, " it's the dogs bollocks, " the original phrase. One of my favourite phrases is " I'm going to see a man about a dog "
It started out as a ruder and maybe more impactful version of phrases such as "The bee's knees" or "The cat's whiskers". Being English, we had to make a ruder version. Also, being English, we came up with a way to make it sound more polite when we were done.
@@foobar476 😜
We say "see a man about a horse"
The cat's pyjamas is another version of superb in the sarcastic way.
ah--heard that a time or two, not often tho
55yo native English in the South...never ever heard the cat's pyjamas. Think you made that up 😂
@@jd_jd_jd Google "The cats pyjamas" Americans spell it pajamas. You will see it there
Palaver - something that is unnecessarily overly complicated, though the original historical meaning was where the commanders of opposing forces who spoke different languages would come together to try to have a conference and sort matters out rather than fight. Also a group meeting at a diplomatic level again with multiple languages and overly complicated.
Actually, historically palaver was a term for the negotiation between British merchants and the native Africans with whom they were trading. Such negotiations were difficult and protracted being carried out by a combination of pidgin, mime and hand gestures.
Thanks for the info.
One American word that makes me laugh is when they say "dove" instead of dived. The first time I encountered it was in a novel and I thought it meant the dove bird. Another is when the say "negative one" instead of minus one.
Math instead of maths.
Yeah, IDK anyone who says dived...🤭
@@bulwinkle still don't understand the need for the "s"
@@TheHicksonDiaries mathematicS
@@TheHicksonDiaries because if you were to undertake a “math test” - would it be that there was only one sum to solve?! Noooo…. Of course not There would a whole page of pesky problems - hence MathSSSSS 😂😂
The Mutt's Nuts is a more polite slang for the more common "Dogs Bollocks", as in the phrase "It's the dogs bollocks."
I think they're both great, but the mutt's nuts has a special place in my heart
Whilst isn’t a slang/fun/archaic word. Yes it can mean while, though whilst sounds more formal but it also can be a conjunction meaning ‘whereas’ E.g. ‘some people like playing rugby whilst others prefer playing soccer’.
what's "soccer"?
Or some people like playing rugby whilst others are wrong now that sounds much more correct to me😜😜😜
There is NO difference. People just use 'whilst' to sound more pompous.
Only Americans call football “Soccer” and call armour clad rugby “football”.
I don't remember hearing anyone in the US use that word, except maybe in a book
I haven't heard of the dummy one either! I'm more familiar with 'threw all his toys out of the pram' :D
I like that, and "pram". 😆
You say "Obviously I can't do it in the British accent", but you don't give yourself credit. Your pronunciation of "You're doin' me 'ead in!" in a southern English working-class accent was perfect! Well done!
Thank you....I'm not sure I could do it agin tho...
The Mut's Nuts = The dog's bollock's. A mut is a dog. and means the best thing ever.
Love it so much.
He kicked the bucket,go for a long wait,go and get some tarten paint.
Going to the dogs is both going downhill (towards disorder, deteriorating) and going to the dog racing.
Whoo hoo--I got one right!
What a palaver! Is really used to describe a ordeal you go through in order to get something done. For instance, getting your visa. Giving lots of seamingly random information (muliple times), lots of comms back and forth, hoops to jump through for no apparent reason, other than 'it's required', then silence until a letter arrives and you open it excitedly, only to find you need to repost some info you already sent weeks ago! Finally, your visa arrives. What a palaver!
Going to the dogs, does actually mean, its all going downhill, its falling apart.
My instincts were right, thanks! 👍
'Big girl's blouse' is 'the bee's knees' for me. In fact, it's 'hellish topper', and 'no messing'! A really good word is 'omnishambles'.
What’s ‘omnishambles’?
When everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, creating chaos. It came from the BBC political comedy The Thick of It.
"Palaver" - from the Portuguese palavra, which usually means "speech" or "word" but was used by Portuguese traders with the specific meaning "discussions with natives." The Portuguese word traces back to the Late Latin parabola, a noun meaning "speech" or "parable."
That's an interesting origin, thanx for letting me know.
I love the way the way Americans pronounce "behove". It always makes me chuckle.
Another one is "hover".
do we say it funny?
I’m American and I pronounce “hover” with the short “o” sound (rhymes with “cover”). If I say “hoover”, I’m either referring to an American president by that name, the massive hydroelectric dam of the same name, or a brand of vacuum cleaner.
Not sure what the world “behove” is. That’s a really cool and neat new word for me.
The dogs bollocks ------- the best, great
Sweet...
What a Pavlova. He whipped up quite a mess old boy.
Was he from Eton by any chance? 🤔
That is such a British comment....
He whipped up a dessert did he?
Doing me head in! Comes as a bunch of sayings with different connotations
Doing me head in
He does me head in
Etc. it can be utilised all sorts of different frustrating situations
Polava actually is palaver, a term we know well in South Africa 🇿🇦, in being a former colony.
Ok, so, there is only one English language, anything else is English spoken incorrectly.
You mean like the English do? Plenty of words have the letter R in them but a lot of English people seem blind to that.
@@elemar5do you pronounce the "K" in "knee".
Silent letters are a thing...
@@elemar5and "Herb" starts with a "H". Use it.
@@Rachel_M_ I do every time. Funny you think I'm American.
@@Rachel_M_ Water doesn't have a silent R.
Thank you for this funny video ❤ it made me smile.. in England, we love a conversation to be more like something we call 'banter' .. we also call it "taking the piss," especially when someone takes it a bit too far 😂😂 .. I'm looking forward to hearing more 🙂👍🏻
Going to the dogs !! You were right first time honestly!
good to know Iogic does apply from time to time
"The Chinese restaurant in town has really gone to the dogs", means it used to be really good but it has rapidly declined. Alternate to the "mutts nuts" is the "dogs doodahs", exactly the same meaning though. I've also heard it called the "caninus testiculus". 😂😂
Palaver originally ment just "conversation" = same word origin like the french "parlez" or italian "parlare" or portuguese "palavre" for "to speak" (originally in the past a sailor´s international term for verbally interacting amongst sailors from different nations when meeting on the high sea (might be for trading, or negotiating terms of battles or even terms of surrender) which were at first foremost romance languages speaking nations like the very early medi evil seapowers and City states "Venice + Genoa" then followed in the Rennaisance times by the Portuguese and Spaniards obviously short after also followed then by the English + French= basically all the uprising European´s colonial powers used that term) and it also became then a military term on the continent for the same reasons as well simply because those colonial powers were way more in war than in peace with each other or with someone else..
We in German use the term "Palaver" (noun) or "palavern" (verb) for describing a totally senseless and useless conversation or speech with no meaningful outcome= basically for talking utter nonsense (but when the nonsense talker is not aware of him talking utter nonsense then we make him aware by using that specific terms for his talk...Like saying "That´s just a Palaver" (= the content has no substance) or "Stop to palavern" = "Stop talking shit" although I admit that use is nowadays way more common amongst the older Generation...I personally never heard a young one using that terms anymore)
Just so. Thought nobody was ever going to say it!
Whilst can be used instead of “While I was”. Example: Whilst at the dentist. While I was at the dentist.
Never heard 'The mutt's nuts' before, down here in Somerset we say 'The bee's knees'
I'm sure bee's knees is much earlier. I think dogs bollocks was a recent take on that old term.
Whilst is just correct English.
Is it not Past participle?
Whilst means although. While means during the time when. While you were asleep.
Whilst is anachronistic, but it's still used, unlike wast, hast, shouldst, canst
Whilst thou vs while you
@@carolynekershaw1652 Sorry for being a linguistics lecturer but while and whilst are are different as too, two and two. If some people muddle them up, it’s their fault and not the fault of the words. Oh, and when I lived in Manchester while was used to mean until and still is in local speech. I stayed up while nine but he never showed.
@@Joanna-il2ur substituting while for until is regional dialect local to part of West Yorkshire and Greater Manchester, not sure it has anything to do with the anachronistic use of whilst rather then while.
A Greek friend once asked me when whilst should be used instead of while, I suggested before 1685 . . .
I remember in school English lessons discussing when one particular word/phrase could the perfect choice, for which the chosen term was the French "le mot juste". I have a feeling that on different occasions, "among" or "amongst" could be le mot juste, but I'm not sure exactly when. It was all a very long time ago.
what does that French expression mean?
@@TheHicksonDiaries "Le mot" is "The word" (I'm fairly confident about that). "Juste" is a bit more tricky. I'll stick with "perfect".
Palaver is spelt like this and dates from the early 1700s. Untoward is well-eatablished and dates from 1520.
Uh, no, you were right in the first place with "going to the dogs." We might also say "rack and ruin," it's something which is a shadow of its former self.
Rack and ruin, not sure I've heard of that one
@@TheHicksonDiariesactually it's wrack, as in sea wrack.
There’s also a saying “The Bees Knees” meaning something is excellent or top quality!
Going to the dogs, means a disaster!
I have heard of the bees knees, forgot about it tho.
As an Aussie, I use all of these except the mutt's nuts. Never heard that one before, it's usually the bee's knees or the duck's nuts (which is weird because ducks don't have them)., You won't hear jog on in Aus either (too British). I admit being stunned that fortnight isn't used the US!
It does mean things falling apart. Going to the dogs means the vicious dogs ripping it apart.. being destroyed. Your right. Although it does also mean going to the dog racing too. Its how you use it.
Typical English….more than 1 meaning for the same thing.
Nice to see a bottle of Australian wine,Taylor's Promised Land, on the shelf, in the background. Can't make out which variety, however, obviously a red. Very good value for money.
Going to the dogs means 'everything is going to the dogs' means everything is a mess, g going down hill etc
That was my first thought
😊😊😊😊 The words untoward and whilst are words that aren't used often ,if ever used in every conversation,they are used in some books , probably more serious ones and the more serious newspapers like the Times , Telegraph and Guardian another variation of" spitting out your dummy"is throwing your toys out of the pram " it's another one that says you're being childish/petulant. The going to dogs phrase dates back to the 16 th century,meat that wasn't fit for human consumption was thrown to the dogs for them to eat ,we use it to mean "it's gone tits up " (another saying for you) everything has gone wrong,is a favourite of mine ,glad to see you having fun learning British sayings, learning can be fun 😊😊😊😊.❤❤
I both say, and write (type, these days)
'untoward' _and_ 'whilst'... In fact, I probably use 'whilst' everyday.
Whether or not it's due to my age (I shall be 71 this coming early August '24) or it's just that the way I was taught to speak and, especially, to _write English_ back in the 1960's has been my 'modus operandi' ever since, I could not tell you, but that is the case... Perhaps I'm in the minority these days as so many 'Americanisms' have "crept into our crypts, cr*pped, and are _not_ creeping back out" ?!!
I strive, however to maintain some 'sense of decorum' and thus, continue to endeavour holding my standard ...and yes, I slip and stumble along the way, but, I still try! ("Oxford comma" included!)
🤔🏴❤🙂🖖
@@brigidsingleton1596
Like you I'm old enough to remember the swinging 60's ,I find the language has moved on and left me behind,not that I care anymore,most of my cultural references are just a distant memory,if I'm writing an email or text I can't not use capital letters where appropriate ,it's a quirk ,if I'm asked for part of my phone number ( last three digits)I can't do it ,it has to be the whole of the number.Now't so queer as folk 😊😊❤️❤️.
Do One!
I quite get how odd it is when although we speak the same language essentially there are the strange oddities. Particularly how coy Americans are about public toilets: I felt quite giggly when in the USA having to ask the whereabouts of the ‘restroom’, I mean, I don’t need to go for a rest but to pee!
Haha-it’s our puritan origins (imo)
In Scotland, creepy crawlies are called "wee beasties", if it's a big one, it's called a "big f@#$%ing Beastie!"
There are an almost infinite number of such expressions. "On yer bike" =jog on. The upper-classes would say disparagingly to the lower orders "run along now". Spitting feathers & the more extreme "spitting blood" also come to mind instead of "...dummy"
Haven’t heard any of these yet but they’re hilarious 🤣
@@daffyduk77 I think spitting feathers means you're really thirsty. As in....let's go to the pub Im spitting feathers!
"Mutt's nuts", "(Don't) Spit out your dummy". See also: "Dog's Bollocks" and "(Don't) Climb out of your pram".
😝 love ‘em
'Whilst' is from the 1300s and is the genetive case of 'while' with an added t (in the same way that Americans add a t to 'unbeknown').
IDK unbeknownt.....
@@TheHicksonDiaries My fault. Unbeknownst.
Going to the dogs originally referred to stored food that was found to be going off, so it would go to the dogs.
perfectly logical
Lots of expressions spring to mind:
'I wouldn't touch him with a barge pole.' (I want nothing to do with this person). A barge pole (found on narrow boats) is about 8 feet long.
'He's not the full shilling.' 'He's not playing with a full deck of cards.' 'He's away with the fairies.' (someone with delusional mental health problems).
'He was hoist by his own petard.' A very old expression meaning to be destroyed by your own actions. A petard was an explosive device placed against the gate of a fortress, the fuse lit and you ran away before it exploded. Sometimes the fuse was only a few seconds and it exploded prematurely killing whoever lit the fuse. They were 'hoist'.
Living in America and using British terms I’ve found Americans think it’s hilarious when you call someone a wanker and so many I’ve met have started using the term, I’m afraid I may have started something over here with it
Whilst is an extension of while and is used in certain contexts.
'Whilst' is _my everyday usage_ 'word of choice'.
Can't understand why "whilst" trips you up! It's a normal word, probably a bit more formal and educated than "while" in some circumstances, but no-one would raise an eyebrow if you used it.
Pessimists are often pleasantly surprised whereas optimists are often disappointed.
British English is replete with slang, proverbs and idioms, many of which have regional variations, that have often existed for several centuries. It is part of its attraction and fun. Unfortunately, American English, being a stripped-down pidgin version, retained none of the original's charm. Pity.
Excuse me for correcting you, it's replete, not repleat.
@@Lily_The_Pink972 You are, of course, correct. Silly me. I've been reading a lot of medieval poetry lately and something must have stuck!
From a linguistic perspective that's just plain wrong
I am a Brit and I never got used to my American saying "I am liking to catch a cold." Who likes catching a cold?
" MY BAD " ! WHAT !!??
THE MUTT'S NUTS = THE DOG'S BOLLOCKS.
“My Bad” = “[I’m sorry, that’s] My Mistake.” It’s used as an acknowledgment/ownership of a mistake or wrongdoing, with an apology wrapped around it.
Palaver, along with Marmalade is one of the two English words taken from Portuguese.
In Britain the difference between spitting your dummy out and a Karen is the first is as you say getting annoyed or upset over something usually trivial and a Karen is someone who is expectant of everything to be done the way they think it should and complaining about it if is isn’t
Speaking as an Englishman, I speak English, and you are a foreigner who claims to speak my language, whereas, in reality you speak a bastardised form of my language due in part to Mr Webster and mainly due to natural shifts in language when a settlement is separated from it's verbal roots by a couple of hundred years.
As a fellow Englishman I find your comments both crass and ignorant. Unless you're wandering about whichever part of the country benighted by your domicile still talking Elizabethan English, modern English usage is as far from the linguistic ( not verbal as you state) common root as modern American usage. If fact modern American usage retains many words used in the early modern period now lost in England, such as 'fall' to mean autumn, 'faucet' to mean tap or spigot and ' sidewalk '. These, and others were once commonly used in England. American English is as valid a variation of the language as the English English - describing is as bastardised is both wrong, and offensive. You might as well describe English itself as bastardised French or Norse.
@@robt2778 While I agree with your sentiment. I think you're taking this a bit too seriously.
I suspect Mr Webster may have been illiterate, and to get around this, produced a dictionary to bring the rest of America inline with himself. 😂
@@Spiritof1955 How did Mark Twain put it?
“Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with their experience.”
By your description, Mr. Daniel Webster seems to have done the same with American English.
(I say this with tongue planted firmly in cheek. I personally find how languages evolve and change over time rather fascinating.)
"Jog on" is somewhat confrontational and would be used when someone is interfering in someone else's business/conversation. Street charity workers ('chuggers', which is short for CHarity mUGGERS) or beggars might be told to jog on, but most people are not so rude.
I would have said Jog off rather than jog on, or more likely sling your hook
Did you know that Americans still use really old English terms that we gave up long ago. "Gotten" is one. The other one that comes to mind quickly is Jamaicans not Americans I think but it is "aks" for "ask". Others are "fall" "trash" "diaper" and "faucet"
Aks is from the West Country and was taken to the Southern States as well as the West Indies by West Country immigrants and seamen.
@@andyp5899 Not just the West Country, It was standard until about 1600 from the old word "acsian". Chaucer used "ax" in the Miller's tale he uses both versions "Axe nat why, for though thou aske me, / I wol nat tellen goddes pryvetee." It's in the first complete translation of the Bible.
I get asked about "aks" all the time, never knew where it came from.
"Spit the dummy" has its origin in Australia. This is the first time I've heard it with "out" appended.
Hmm. Never heard it without it.
@@TheHicksonDiaries Yes. Those English people can be pretty strange. You can also use it to inform someone of an event. "Did you see Bruce have that major dummy spit this morning?" With a response, "Yeah. He spat the dummy big time."
Going to the dogs basically giving something a 1 in 6 chance of success
A palaver is "a lot of unnecessary activity, excitement or trouble, especially caused by something that is not important" It comes from portuguese, apparently.
Whist is a shortening word like instead of saying - while I was walking . …. .. you would use “whist walking. ….. . . . . … ”
We're ironically pessimistic I'll have u know!!!
"Doing my head in" can also be "Twisting my Melon". It was used in one of the "Stone Roses" songs.
"Your having a bubble!" , is cockney rhyming slang for "Your having a laugh!"
Bubble Bath rhymes with laugh but you miss out the bath bit.
"Codswallop" is an old word and it's pronounced as if it was two separate words "Cods Wallop" and used to describe fish guts (the stuff you throw away..rubbish), and it would to be used as "What a load of old Codswallop" or "Hes talking Codswallop"
"You're twisting my melon, man!" is from the song 'Step On' by The Happy Mondays.
I use the idiom “Fry your noodle”, as in your noodle (your brains) are getting fried (confused, twisted around, etc.) The first instance of its use I’ve encountered is in the first Matrix movie and Oracle uses it in her conversation with Neo. I loved it instantly and squirreled it away in my brain attic for later use.
Fun vid. Thanks.
'The mutt's nuts' is a politer way. The original is 'The dog's bollocks', which is funnier.
Most of those I use often, as this is my home. I do have some US ones, have lived there for a decade. The French ones, from my time there, are funny but trickier to explain.
Language is grand.
Im having fun with it! 😃
We're not pessimistic.
do be so pessimistic, we are
Spitting the dummy is from Australia originally
Hmm. Interesting
I hate "whatever" and when my kids were teenager I told them that if they ever said it, they would be out of the house and living on the street. Of course it was not the actual words, but the attitude that went with it. They never did say it, or do the attitude but we all had a laugh when I went to a small corner shop in the next town and it had painted on the board with the shop them, their mission statement which was "Whatever - wherever". Which we all said, with attitude from then on when we saw a small shop.
Haha. Fun story. Thx for sharing! 😀
@@TheHicksonDiaries I went past that shop the other day, and that phrase has been painted out!
Mutt's Nuts = Dog's Bollocks = 10dB ( ten dB). The last one is 10 out of 10 or a 10 on the dB scale (deciBel)
Ahhh. Like it.