The Joy of Slang

[Kepler]

A thread devoted to pungent / funny / bizarre expressions, particularly ones you have never heard before, from co-workers, strangers, Appalachian relatives, etc. Extra style points if the idiom was just thrown casually and naturally into conversation without a thought.

Overheard this morning at work, goat rodeo. Definition courtesy of Urban Dictionary: "about the most polite term used by aviation people (and others in higher risk situations) to describe a scenario that requires about 100 things to go right at once if you intend to walk away from it."

Usage:

Does not appear to be regional, though common in the military. Closely related to goat rope, which connotes something similar with less stress on chaos and more on sheer irritation.

Examples:

This meeting is a goat rodeo.

I hate that guy; five minutes and he's already handed us a goat rope.

 

[state of hockey]

Re: The Joy of Slang

I have heard a buddy of mine that is an Army Airborne medic in Iraq use goat rodeo a few times. Makes me chuckle.

 

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: The Joy of Slang

"right down to the gnat's as.s"

- Something that is done with lots of care for the details and very high precision. Usually associated with the level of engineering required for some critical component in mechanical design. As in:

"We don't have a lot of room for error on this, so let's make sure we engineer this thing right down to the gnat's as.s."

 

[umd1]

Re: The Joy of Slang

I had a baseball coach about 20 years ago that would call people that.... "c'mon you old goat roper". I never had a clue what that meant, but always remembered it.

 

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: The Joy of Slang

When I squint, I think that this thread is titled "The Joy of Shaq".

Which might be another interesting thread altogether. I'm sure Shaq would agree.

 

[Rimbaud]

Re: The Joy of Slang

An basketball coach in high school would always say "and don't forget, the horses are in the barn."

Which I assume meant he didn't want us to be involved in a barnburner of a game and just wanted to win going away.

 

[zamboni crash-test dummy]

Re: The Joy of Slang

A long time ago I worked for a tool distributor and whenever we got shafted by a customer (like returning something for warranty replacement they obviously abused) the warehouse manager would say 'they gave us the green weenie.'

 

[geezer]

Re: The Joy of Slang

"right down to the gnat's as.s"

- Something that is done with lots of care for the details and very high precision. Usually associated with the level of engineering required for some critical component in mechanical design. As in:

"We don't have a lot of room for error on this, so let's make sure we engineer this thing right down to the gnat's as.s."

when I was doing carpentry, about 1/32 of an inch was called "a c-hair" as in, "it's just a c-hair over 4-foot-3" or putting a beam in place, "knock it this way a c-hair"

(the "c" abbreviation, originally used in the presence of polite company, became the standard)

 

[Gonzo]

Re: The Joy of Slang

when I was doing carpentry, about 1/32 of an inch was called "a c-hair" as in, "it's just a c-hair over 4-foot-3" or putting a beam in place, "knock it this way a c-hair"

(the "c" abbreviation, originally used in the presence of polite company, became the standard)

Following the carpentry theme - whenever my dad saw someone with mental health issues, he'd say "That guys at least a half a bubble off plumb"

 

[goldy_331]

Re: The Joy of Slang

when I was doing carpentry, about 1/32 of an inch was called "a c-hair" as in, "it's just a c-hair over 4-foot-3" or putting a beam in place, "knock it this way a c-hair"

(the "c" abbreviation, originally used in the presence of polite company, became the standard)

For really close measurements we had red c-hairs.

 

[French Rage]

Re: The Joy of Slang

My mom always used "what does that have to do with the price of beans" as a retort to something that had no bearing on the conversation, and I find myself using it now though no one else knows what it means when I do.

 

[geezer]

Re: The Joy of Slang

For really close measurements we had red c-hairs.

that's right... it must be more widespread than I thought.

 

[ExileOnDaytonStreet]

Re: The Joy of Slang

My mom always used "what does that have to do with the price of beans" as a retort to something that had no bearing on the conversation, and I find myself using it now though no one else knows what it means when I do.

Ironically enough, the price of beans probably has little to do with very many conversations that your mom used that phrase in.

 

[goldy_331]

Re: The Joy of Slang

My mom always used "what does that have to do with the price of beans" as a retort to something that had no bearing on the conversation, and I find myself using it now though no one else knows what it means when I do.

I believe the full quote is "the price of beans FOB Hong Kong."

 

[johnnypohlfan]

Re: The Joy of Slang

Following the carpentry theme - whenever my dad saw someone with mental health issues, he'd say "That guys at least a half a bubble off plumb"

Along the lines for describing people who aren't "all there." A few of my favorites:

Half a keg short of a party.
A french fry short of a happy meal.
The antanna doesn't pick up all the channels.

 

[Kepler]

Re: The Joy of Slang

My wife works with a lot of guys at the TSA which has a certain, shall we say, blue collar New Jersey Jimmy Hoffa mise en scene. She reported this one a while back: their butts are in butter. It means something like "they're on easy street," or "in clover."

 

[SteveP]

Re: The Joy of Slang

I have heard a buddy of mine that is an Army Airborne medic in Iraq use goat rodeo a few times. Makes me chuckle.

Here's a discussion of "goat rope."

Since we're just a few days past the anniversary of D-Day, so many slang words and idioms still used today originated in WWII:

Fubar, snafu and "doesn't know s#@t from shinola" are just three examples.

A favorite slang of many cops, especially older guys close to retirement, is FIDO (F*&k It, Drive On)

 

[zamboni crash-test dummy]

Re: The Joy of Slang

Since we're just a few days past the anniversary of D-Day, so many slang words and idioms still used today originated in WWII:

Fubar, snafu and "doesn't know s#@t from shinola" are just three examples.

Another one that might have originated from WWII: the belt of ammo for each of the P47 Thunderbolt's eight .50 cal machine guns is 27 feet long. So if a fighter pilot on a ground attack mission found a robust target (such as a locomotive) and emptied all his ammo on it he would say he gave it 'the full 9 yards.'

Until I read that I never understood 'the full 9 yards' (since it takes 10 yards to get a first down). It's accuracy is debated though.

 

[SteveP]

Re: The Joy of Slang

Another one that might have originated from WWII: the belt of ammo for each of the P47 Thunderbolt's eight .50 cal machine guns is 27 feet long. So if a fighter pilot on a ground attack mission found a robust target (such as a locomotive) and emptied all his ammo on it he would say he gave it 'the full 9 yards.'

Until I read that I never understood 'the full 9 yards' (since it takes 10 yards to get a first down). It's accuracy is debated though.

The guy who runs Phrase Finder agrees with your last sentence.

Here's a warning for you. If you are thinking of writing a web page about the origin of the phrase 'the whole nine yards', prepare yourself for a snowstorm of email. Over the years that I've been publishing such a page I have had hundreds of emails from people who pity my ignorance of the source of the phrase and wish to inform the world that they KNOW the origin.

The capital letters are a common feature of these emails and, if emails can have a body language, then these examples convey an impression of a puce-faced gentleman (and congratulate your gender ladies, my correspondents are almost always male), pounding the keyboard with his fists and shouting a lot.

 

[state of hockey]

Re: The Joy of Slang

A favorite slang of many cops, especially older guys close to retirement, is FIDO (F*&k It, Drive On)

One of my cousins has a husband that is a cop in Anoka, MN, and I have heard him use that one. He is a part of the SWAT team now. Sucks to be in Anoka, I guess.