This has been so much fun to read (and educational), I couldn't resist joining in. Here are a few from my grandmother, who is Pennsylvania Dutch.

Outen the light
"Remember to outen the light before you leave."

toot (rhymes with soot)
"Will you carry those things you bought, or would you like a toot?"

stroobly (same "oo" sound as above)
"The hair on an orangutan always looks stroobly."

Have fun!

BTW, Brakhus, please include more Spanish! I'm brushing up on the language for my move to TX!

Okay... here goes with my guesses...

a 'toot' - a bag?

'outen' - turn off?

'stroobly'.... hmmm. straggly? frizzy?

My other half (a historian) found out from a colleague of hers that the old Dutch for 'mount your horse!' (used when going into battle I guess) is (and this is just how it sounds to me) , clueber oop de beastie, which I always find very funny as it seems to literally translate as 'climb up the beast'!

So a gorkle is a tourist, eh? I wonder if that was the basis for the "Muggles" in the Harry Potter books; similar words, in a way.....(Deb wanders off in deep thought...)

Forgive me wanderer, but the "clueber" phrase made me imagine the Swedish chef (from the old Muppet Show) saying it. Too funny!

Good job, Wanderer! You win the prize!

I'm not sure how to spell these next ones, but here we go...

nixnoots

"Kimmie"

ferhoodled

"Kimmie as a goat dresser, forgetting to start at the sound of the whistle."

(Sorry, Kimmie)

left-handed compliment

She gave me a left-handed compliment on my hair, when she said it looked good, then asked how long I had been dyeing it.

Definition:
Also, backhanded compliment. An insult in the guise of an expression of praise. This expression uses left-handed in the sense of "questionable or doubtful," a usage dating from about 1600.

Dunno about that one jenny could it mean befuddled confused or perhaps just a little dim witted!!!!! Lol

Have we had

"A whole new kettle of fish" yet?

Kimmie,

I think you found one we haven't had yet. I have to admit, I've never quite understood where this one has come from. I mean, the only thing that I associate with kettles is boiling hot water to make tea. Who would want "fish tea"? Yuck!

Oi oi.....
Mind what you say about us poor left handers!!!
We call it a 'backhanded' compliment round here. Not sure why that is.... I get all the 'cack handed' comments all the time, and you should hear my mum when I cut bread. And as for knitting..... no chance!! Still, at least i'm in my right mind.......(ho ho!)

Searcher - I love the Swedish chef on the muppets - my favourite one is the one where he makes the chocolate mousse.... (or chocolate moose, as it was!!)

Ok here it is another one, this time, by Groucho (you did guess quite well, dear sister ):

"long winded".

I don't think our dear new sister Cellist was sailing and because of winds... so, I'm lost. As usual, would you mind...?

Thank you, as usual too.

Brakhus

A "long winded" person would be somebody who LOVES to talk & who takes twice as long to say something as is necessary....or just keeps talking/posting on and on and on....till your eyes go crossed and you forget the original point they were trying to make...or they just don't know quite when to stop.....or the story goes on and on and on......Got it now, Brakhus? Or should I keep going?

DewDoc: Thank you so much! I think I've got it.
Hmmmm... that "long winded" kind of person is much alike to me, isn't it? I think I must to pay attention to the wind... LOL!
Thank you again, dear sister.

Blessings!

lol, Brakhus! My goodness...I would never have called you long winded...maybe very detailed!

That could be a new way of telling somebody to be quiet, you know it? "Pay attention to the wind, my friend"--LOL! You're cracking me up!

What a wonderful feeling I feel! I'm contributing with the development of English (Shakespeare, be careful, LOL

But, as I'm happily back, I have another question:

In the thread about denominations, DewDoc posted:

quote:

It's so hard to be a "PK" anyway

What is a "PK" exactly? It cannot be something like "Pink King", can't be? LOL. (JK)

P.S.: JK is not what you think... it is "Just kidding"

Blessings.

Brakhus, that's a good question. I believe what Doc was saying was that it is hard to be a "Preacher's Kid", ie, the son/daughter of a preacher, pastor, priest, etc.

Brakhus, your questions are really helping me pay attention to the way I write and speak, and helping me to start noticing words and phrases that might not be clear to non-native speakers. Thanks. This is good preparation for going to Ft Worth, where the population is 50% Latino. I'm sure I'll have the same challenge there, as my Spanish is a little rusty (not used/practiced for a while) and I haven't spent much time with native speakers.

New Song is right, Brakhus. "PK" stands for "Preacher's Kid." Sorry!

I found this online this morning and thought I'd ask for some input. What about this...

“I was wondering where the term gingerly originates. I usually associate it with the phrase to step gingerly meaning to be careful. Here in Australia, one might have said (in days of yore): ‘Your dad’s feeling gingerly this morning’. So here we have it indicating a degree of illness (possibly the result of too much of the good stuff the previous night). Can you shed any light on it?”

Katie