Just so you know, I didn't coin the expression "Octogre"....I blatantly stole it from some wit who thought of it many years ago. It seems that Piers Anthony might've been the one from whom I swiped it, but I've been using it for so many years, I no longer remember.
We pick up expressions from all parts of our lives, don't we. Each family has expressions and idioms they use that are peculiar to their background and habits. We have some doozies in my family, and in my extended family.
My mum was a good one for wonderful expressions. When we were kids, she'd say things like:
How many of you are out in the yard?
Seven of us.
Well, half of you come in here.
whut?
She loved to mess us about.
We'd be out playing like a buncha hooligans, running wild and laughing and carrying on.
Be careful out there!
We are!!
Well, if you fall down and break both your legs, don't come running to me!
whut?
So...are you going to pack your lunch, or walk to school?
whut?
Mum, I need a bandaid for my finger!!
How'd you cut it..burn it?
whut?
She loved to mix her metaphors, as well.
That Henry. He was runnin' down the street like a house on fire.
whut?
She knew the difference between playing with words, and knowing the correct ones to use. Her sister was talking about a fella she knew back in the old days, and told the story of a weekend outing and how she got to a meeting place by "....riding over on the back of a guy named Ed's motorcycle".
Not missing a beat, mum remarked, "I didn't know you knew a guy named Eds Motorcycle."
My mum was one of the smartest, sharpest women I've ever known. She could size up a man, woman, child, or animal at thirty paces in twenty seconds or less. And she was so very rarely wrong.
That one is not to be trusted.
Why not?
She hath a lean and hungry look.
Trust my mum to work a Shakespearean reference into a "watch out for that one" warning. She was right, though. Little Miss Lean and Hungry had a bad habit of poaching other people's boyfriends. Not mine, though. My cousin's. She got her comeuppance in the end, as so often happens. She poached a cheater who cheated on her and broke her heart. Well, we think it was her heart; the jury is still out on whether or not she actually had one. Ol' Love and Leave 'Em Linda.
We had odd names for things, too. One of my cousins couldn't say the word "basement", so it came out "baymish". We still use that one. A friend's son had trouble with "convertible" which became "mummable"...which it still is today. Son is now in his thirties with kids of his own, another generation to add to the weirdness of our collective vocabulary.
Even into adulthood, my generation of the family has kept the weird and wonderful expressions of our childhood...
salt'n shakers
six of one, half dozen of the other
bumbershoots and flutterbyes
If I get there first, I'll make a chalk mark. If you get there first, rub it out.
whut?
Does your family, then or now, have expressions that make no sense...except they do? Or things that you think only your family says? Do tell!
Or, you may Kibitz about anything else you like, as that is why we all gather around the table of an evening. The days are drawing in, and time spent with friends around a kitchen table is to be treasured and celebrated.
Wordplay at the speed of light.....
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.